Snag-hit UK plane lands safely in Goa

Vasco: Over 250 passengers had a narrow escape when a British flight developed technical snag midair and was forced to make an emergency landing at Dabolim airport on Sunday morning.
The plane was stranded on the runway for over an hour due to unavailability of a towing machine, thereby exposing the inadequacy of airport authorities to react to an emergency in one of the busiest airports in the country.
According to sources at Dabolim airport, the runway was closed for nearly 70 minutes on Sunday morning, after an UK aircraft with 254 passengers on aboard made an emergency landing, after the plane developed technical snag.
At about 9.40 am, the aircraft contacted the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) for an emergency landing at Dabolim airport after it developed some hydraulic snag in the aircraft midair.
“The ATC cleared the runway for emergency landing of the aircraft and fire fighters of Navy were all set to combat any eventuality as there were possibilities that when there is hydraulic snag, the aircraft might catch fire while landing,” added sources.
“For nearly 70 minutes, the runway was closed and one chartered flight with 350 passengers on board was diverted to Mumbai and later in the evening the diverted flight landed at Dabolim airport,” added sources.
10/01/10 Herald

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Foreign Jan 2010, Safety Jan 2010