Ethiopian Airlines plane develops glitch, airlines denies reports of emergency landing
Ethiopain Airlines said the flight computer had a short and precautionary fault message about its landing gear. They said the flight made a regular landing.
An Ethiopian Airlines plane developed a technical snag before landing at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi on July 24, an airport official said.
The flight was coming from Addis Ababa and was to land at New Delhi at 8.50am. “But, it was found that the Ethiopian Airlines plane developed a landing gear indicator problem because of which it had to make an emergency landing at the airport. It landed at 8.59am,” an airport official said.
The plane, flight number 686, was carrying 226 passengers and all of them were de-boarded safely, the official added.
The airlines, however, denied the reports. “Our regular flight ET 686/23-24JUL schedule service from Addis Ababa to New Delhi which landed at IGI airport in Delhi in standard landing procedures. The flight did not make any emergency landing and did not have any emergency condition. The flight computer had a short and precautionary fault message about its landing gear but it was cleared instantly by the flight crew and the flight made regular landing which can be testified from the airport data base,” the airlines spokesperson said.
Earlier this month on July 11, a man tried to force open the emergency door of a flight before it could land at Ranchi airport on Monday night. He had boarded the AirAsia flight from Delhi. The 32-year-old passenger identified as Aftab Ahmed also injured a few fellow passengers and members of the flight crew when they tried to stop him.
The Air Asia flight (I5-546) had taken off from Delhi and was headed towards Kolkata via Ranchi. At around 9.50pm, Ahmed who was seated on 24-A suddenly tried to force open one of the emergency doors (R2) of the flight.
(This story, first published on July 24, is updated with a statement from the Ethiopian Airlines)