KOCHI: The passengers of an Air India Express flight from Sharjah to Kochi and their relatives faced tense moments on Sunday evening after the flight reported a suspected hydraulic failure. An emergency was alerted at the Cochin International Airport at 8:04 pm after the Air India Express flight with 193 passengers and six crew detected a suspected hydraulic failure.
"Full emergency was declared at 2004 hours (8:04 pm)," said a communication from the Kochi airport. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief after the aircraft landed safely at 8:26 pm. "Aircraft landed safely at 2036 hours," it said. The CIAL statement said there was no diversion of flights or runway blockage due to the incident.
This is the second emergency landing at Kochi airport in recent times. Last month, a SpiceJet flight from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) bound for Kozhikode with 197 passengers, including six crew, onboard had an emergency landing at the Cochin International Airport on December 2 following hydraulic failure. An emergency was declared in the airport at 6:29 pm after the SpiceJet-SG 036 flight, which was scheduled to land at Kozhikode airport, was diverted to Kochi. The Spicejet flight landed safely at 7.19 pm on the runway after an emergency landing situation.