New Delhi: Air India's spate of engine failures on Sunday morning led to a Chicago-Delhi flight making an emergency landing in Toronto. The Boeing 777-300 with 236 passengers on board, including Union minister of state for aviation G M Siddeshwara and his family, landed safely at the Toronto Pearson Airport. The passengers will now be flown to India on Monday on another aircraft.
"The aircraft had been airborne for over two hours. It was half-an-hour away from the Atlantic Ocean when the captain saw oil pressure falling in the right engine of the twin-engine aircraft. Since there was no way he could have ventured over the ocean with engine trouble, he decided to return to Chicago. But the engine's condition kept deteriorating. So the aircraft was made to land at the nearest airport which happened to be Toronto," said a senior official of the virtually headless airline.
The aircraft jettisoned fuel which it was carrying for the almost 14-hour flight to Delhi so that it could come close to maximum landing weight for a safe landing in Toronto. It will now be examined by AI, Boeing and the engine manufacturer. Incidentally, this is the second engine failure AI has suffered in US in past two months. The Federal Aviation Administration, which had in January downgraded Indian aviation safety ranking, may also look at AI's engineering and DGCA's oversight capability.
07/09/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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"The aircraft had been airborne for over two hours. It was half-an-hour away from the Atlantic Ocean when the captain saw oil pressure falling in the right engine of the twin-engine aircraft. Since there was no way he could have ventured over the ocean with engine trouble, he decided to return to Chicago. But the engine's condition kept deteriorating. So the aircraft was made to land at the nearest airport which happened to be Toronto," said a senior official of the virtually headless airline.
The aircraft jettisoned fuel which it was carrying for the almost 14-hour flight to Delhi so that it could come close to maximum landing weight for a safe landing in Toronto. It will now be examined by AI, Boeing and the engine manufacturer. Incidentally, this is the second engine failure AI has suffered in US in past two months. The Federal Aviation Administration, which had in January downgraded Indian aviation safety ranking, may also look at AI's engineering and DGCA's oversight capability.
07/09/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
