The Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Monday witnessed tense moments when one flight made an emergency landing and another flight aborted take-off halfway down the runway following technical issues. The airport declared a full emergency when an Air India Express flight (IX 613) from Trichy bound for Sharjah was diverted to the state capital due to suspected malfunctioning of the landing gear.
When the airport was making preparation for the precautionary landing of the aircraft, another Air India Express flight (IX 573) has aborted takeoff after the aircraft began accelerating down the runway in order to take off. The take-off was aborted after the pilot reportedly noticed damage to the tyre attached to the landing gear. The airport sources report that the aborted flight was taxied to the bay before the landing of the diverted flight. The second flight with 154 passengers and six crew members landed safely by 12 PM, while the aborted flight had 168 passengers and six crew onboard.
Sources in the airline said the Sharjah-bound flight has made a ‘precautionary landing’, not an ‘emergency landing’. During an emergency landing, the pilot will declare the distress call MAY day – indicating a life-threatening emergency- before making the landing. The engineering wing of the airline is inspecting the landed aircraft in order to fix the issue, said the sources.
