Open-door scare forces AI plane to land

New Delhi: On Sunday, an A-310 flight AI 349 from Delhi to Mumbai took off from IGI Airport at about 9.45am. According to sources, when it was about 70-80 miles away from the capital, the pilot contacted the air traffic control, asking for an emergency landing as there was a possibility that one of the cabin doors had not been shut properly during take-off. "A full emergency was declared at 9.50am and the aircraft landed on the main runway shortly after 10am. Within 10 minutes, it was parked in one of the bays and by 10.13am, the emergency was lifted and normal operations commenced at the airport," said airport sources.
An airline official said: "...As a precautionary measure, the pilot decided to land the flight back at Delhi. There was no emergency landing and only a precautionary landing was made. On landing, the aircraft was checked by engineers and it turned out to be a false alarm. The flight took off again half an hour later with all passengers safe."
However, sources said that unless there was an actual problem, the pilot would have decided to continue with the flight since it is easy to detect a false alarm. "One sure shot indicator of an open door is that cabin pressure starts changing. If the alarm was false, the pilot should have known by looking at the pressure gauge and would have continued towards the destination. It is difficult to prove if the alarm was false or not but no pilot would have chosen to return unless he felt there was a serious problem," said sources.
29/12/09 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2009, Airports Dec 2009, NACIL Dec 2009, Safety Dec 2009