Snag hit Sharjah-bound Air India Express flight landed at Trichy airport

TRICHY: As many as 141 passengers of Sharjah-bound Air India Express flight and their family members had a harrowing experience as the flight developed a hydraulic snag soon after it took off from Trichy international airport here on Friday evening.

Sources said that the aircraft’s (IX 613) landing gear did not retract after take-off. The flight departed Trichy airport at around 5.32 pm. Shortly, the pilots found that the landing gear of the aircraft had not retracted. As a part of mid-air emergency operations, the flight circled the airspace around the border of Trichy-Pudukkottai districts and near the international airport.

After burning the fuel to ensure a safe landing with a faulty landing gear, the aircraft spent around three hours in the air. Besides the passengers and their relatives, residents near the airport had also panicked as the Air India Express flight had been making multiple rounds near the airport vicinity. After anxious hours, the snag-hit flight landed at the Trichy airport at around 8.15 pm.

Passengers were evacuated from the flight. Meanwhile, to ensure the safety of passengers and flight crew during the emergency landing, Trichy district administration had pooled in 18 ambulances across the district. Four fire extinguishers of Tamil Nadu fire service and rescue department were mobilized at the airport too. Anarkali, a relative of a passenger Faizal Ahamed from Bhima Nagar in Trichy city said that she rushed back to the airport on hearing the snag developed in the aircraft.

"He called us and informed us that the flight had landed safely," she said.
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