Flight with 141 lands with burst tyre

Chennai: The Chennai airport was put on a "full emergency" after an Air India flight to Chennai carrying 141 passengers had a tyre burst while taking off from Singapore. The flight landed safe at 11.15 am.
"Nose wheel problem, due to technical", radioed the pilot of IC 556 Air India A320 flight to Chennai air traffic control (ATC) as it neared Indian airspace at 9 am. "Assistance required?" asked the traffic controller. But the pilot declined.
It seemed like a normal exchange between a pilot and an air traffic controller when an aircraft experiences technical problem. But on Saturday morning, traffic controllers suspected that there was something more to it and declared a full emergency around 11 am.
Airport officials and emergency team personnel heaved a sign of relief when the aircraft made a safe landing at 11.15 am, despite having a burst tyre. Fire and rescue services personnel, a medical team and engineers monitored the aircraft as it touched down.
The engineering team made preliminary checks and found that one of the rear tyres was completely damaged. Nevertheless, the aircraft taxied to terminal for passengers to disembark.
"The aircraft landed from the St Thomas Mount side on the main runway and vacated the runway after five minutes. As there are four sets of tyres in the rear, the burst did not affect the landing. All the 141 passengers of the flight are safe," said acting airport director Ramgopal.
23/08/09 Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Aug 2009, Airports Aug 2009, NACIL Aug 2009, Safety Aug 2009