TIRUCHY: To assess the cause of hydraulic failure that led to the Sharjah-bound Air India Express flight (IX0613) making an emergency landing on Friday evening, a team of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials from Delhi investigated the Tiruchy international airport on Saturday. The report would be submitted to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, sources said.
The flight, which took off at 5.40 pm on Friday, circled over the airport to burn off excess fuel before landing safely around 8.15 pm.
After over five hours at the Tiruchy airport, a total of 109 passengers left for Sharjah at 2.45 am on Saturday on a ferry flight that arrived from Thiruvananthapuram.
18 ambulances, medical team kept ready as per CM’s order
The remaining 35 passengers cancelled their trips, airport director (officiating) G Gopalakrishnan told TNIE. Among those who cancelled the trips, Umar (35) and Thamilarasan (30), two passengers from Nagapattinam, thanked the pilot and said the passengers did not panic as they were informed about the technical issue just 30 minutes before landing.
Another passenger, Narayanasamy of Perugavazhnthan in Tiruvarur, said, "It was only after we got out of the airport that we realised how much our relatives had waited with trepidation for our safe landing.”
Collector M Pradeep Kumar said, "As soon as we received the information around 6.15 pm, we contacted the pilot who was confident that the aircraft could be landed safely. We were fully prepared."
CM Stalin had directed the district administration to keep all officials on standby with 18 ambulances and a medical team ready, the collector said. "By God's grace, nothing went wrong," the collector said, appreciating the pilot's swift actions that safeguarded the lives of 144 passengers and the government and airport officials for their assistance.
After the news broke about the flight's hydraulic failure, a large number of police personnel, led by Tiruchy city police commissioner N Kamini, were deployed at the airport.