Over 150 passengers of Air India Kochi-Nagpur flight, including Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan and his two senior ministerial colleagues, had a mid-air scare over the Nagpur skies on Friday. The pilot successfully landed
the aircraft after one of its two engines failed
mid-air.
“The flight developed an engine trouble and made an emergency landing at Nagpur. There were 151 passengers and six crew members on board. The flight IC 466 landed here around 10.15 am and a relief aircraft has been asked to take the passengers,” informed IA Dhas, the area marketing manager of Indian Airlines. Among the other prominent passengers in the aircraft include: the Kerala Home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and the water resources minister NK Premachandran.
According to airline sources, there was a loud noise from the back of the aircraft and the aircraft slightly swerved off its course and then the engine almost went silent. The pilot of the aircraft, AS Gujral, immediately informed the passengers about the technical snag and that they were required to make an emergency landing at Nagpur. As he asked all the passengers to fasten their seat belts, left the passengers felt panicky for a while.
It was only after landing safely at the Nagpur airport Gujral inform the passengers about the engine failure. The pilot apologised profusely for the snag event and explained that this was something totally unexpected as the aircraft was brand new. Later a relief aircraft arrived from Delhi to take all the passengers to Delhi.
According to available information, the Kerala chief minister and his two senior colleagues were scheduled to attend a meeting on a dam row between Kerala and Tami Nadu convened by the Prime Minister Manomohan Singh. Moreover, the leaders were also to attend a crucial CPM polit bureau meeting at Delhi, beginning July 4.