Thiruvananthapuram: An Air India plane AI 507 carrying 134 passengers and crew requested an emergency landing at the airport here today after a minor defect was detected in its hydraulic system. The incident comes a day after Gulf Air flight skidded off the runway at the Kochi International Airport.
The flight from Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram via Chennai was scheduled to land at 11.45 am but touched down at 12.15 p.m. It was scheduled to depart to Chennai at 4 pm but had to be grounded. Airport sources said irate passengers were loaded on to an alternate flight that arrived from Maldives, AI 264, after a delay of approximately one-and-half hours. This is the second time that a Chennai-bound Air India flight had to be grounded. In April, a different aircraft had to be grounded following a bird hit, soon after it took off from the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. At that time, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat and Airport Director, G Chandramouli were on the flight.
Abey George, public relations officer, Air India (Kerala) said, "The pilot only suspected a problem with the hydraulics. It was not a serious situation, if it were then the pilot would have deplaned passengers as soon as they touched down. The plane was towed to the bay before the doors were opened. "
31/08/11 Sangeetha Nair/Times of India
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