Close shave for Sonia, PC as jet makes emergency landing

New Delhi/Bangalore: Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram had a close shave on Thursday when an engine of the Falcon aircraft they were on developed a snag. The twin-engine jet, owned by the GMR group, had to make an emergency landing at the silicon city’s new airport at 3.05 pm.
The jet was headed for Coimbatore from Delhi. The pilot discovered the snag around 54 km from Bangalore and switched the engine off.
Later, a replacement aircraft was sent by GMR Aviation that took off with the VVIPs for their destination at 4.50 pm.
“Around 3 pm, the indicators on instrument panel started showing a drop for the right engine. Since this high power plane is capable of landing on a single engine, the pilot did that. There was no danger at any time and the plane had an uneventful landing at Bangalore. We have begun investigations into this incident,” DGCA chief K Gohain said. Luckily for passengers, the reported engine malfunction on VT-VLM happened very close to Bangalore and the plane was able to land quickly.
05/09/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Sep 2008, Safety Sep 2008