An Air India Express aircraft that delayed a routine flight from here to Dubai due to a technical snag last night had to abort trip after the same cropped up again while being airborne.
The AIE 539 aircraft originally scheduled to fly out at 4.30 p.m. was directed to return to the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport but not before going through an inevitable ‘fuel jettison’ mode.
This is a standard practice of dumping the fuel into the sea to reduce the weight of an aircraft before attempting to make an unscheduled but safe landing.
Passengers had a harrowing time in the air for 45 minutes before this operation could conclude and the aircraft could touch the base at around 10.30 p.m. last night.
They could emerge out after another one hour and were told that they would be taken on a separate flight to Dubai the next morning.
The passengers have since left here for Dubai by a special flight early this morning. Airport officials are of the view that only detailed probe would reveal the exact nature of the snag.
Technical snag
The ordeal for the passengers had begun at 4.30 p.m. last evening when the aircraft was scheduled to take off for the routine flight.
They were told that a technical snag would delay their journey by two hours. As the aircraft was taxiing out of the apron into the runway, the snag showed up again.
The aircraft was ordered back to the apron and technicians worked on it for more than an hour before giving the all-clear by 8 p.m.
But after the aircraft was airborne, the pilots were alerted to the recurring problem and radioed the Air Traffic Control.
Petrified passengers
They were told to immediately return to the airport and ready themselves for an unscheduled landing.
Passengers were petrified after the pilots announced that the aircraft was not able to gather speed and was decelerating. They were reportedly then told about the emergency landing procedure.
But they had to spend 45 anxious minutes as the aircraft went into the mandatory ‘fuel jettison’ mode and flew over the city ‘virtually in circles’.
Emergency landing procedures were adopted and fire engines and other safety and security paraphernalia commandeered during landing.
Passengers were accommodated at city-based hotels for the unscheduled overnight stay before they would be flown early in the morning.