Date:04/07/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/04/stories/2009070454410400.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Mid-air scare for VS and two Ministers

C. Gouridasan Nair

Air India flight bound for Delhi makes emergency landing at Nagpur

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran and 133 other passengers flying on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi-New Delhi IC 466 flight had a mid-air scare when the A-321 aircraft of Air India suffered an engine failure and had to go in for emergency landing at Nagpur on Friday morning.

According to the passengers on the aircraft, the flight had taken off from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi at 6.15 a.m. and was cruising quietly when a loud noise was heard from the back and the aircraft seemed to move off course slightly. The pilot appealed to the passengers to remain calm and fasten their seat belts and, a while later, told them that he was taking the aircraft to Nagpur as there was a technical snag. The aircraft made an emergency landing at Nagpur at 10.10 a.m. and the passengers were off-loaded. While the Chief Minister and the Ministers were accommodated in the VIP room at the airport, the other passengers were taken to hotels in the city. They resumed their journey to New Delhi at 2.45 p.m. on a relief aircraft specially flown in for the purpose from New Delhi. Besides the 136 passengers, the flight had a crew of six. The flight was scheduled to reach New Delhi at 10.20 a.m. Airline sources said the VT PPE aircraft, a brand new one, has been grounded following the incident.

Pilot, crew draw praise

Speaking to The Hindu on his arrival in New Delhi, Mr. Achuthanandan said the pilot and crew of the aircraft had handled the situation efficiently and without causing any panic onboard. “We heard a loud noise from the rear part of the plane shortly before we were to fly over Nagpur. The pilot soon asked us to fasten our seatbelts as there was a technical snag and later announced that he was taking the plane to Nagpur. We should have reached Delhi by 10.30 a.m., but could so only in the evening after another plane was brought from Delhi. The pilot and the crew handled the situation very well,” the Chief Minister said.

The Water Resources Minister said the aircraft wobbled a bit after the noise from the rear and that the sound of the engine became quite feeble after this. “The pilot announced that there was a technical snag and asked us to fasten our seat belts. There was a little panic onboard as the sky was clear and there was no turbulence. Soon the pilot announced that he was taking the aircraft to Nagpur for emergency landing and he and his team did so smoothly. Only after we landed did he tell us that one of the engines had failed,” Mr. Premachandran told The Hindu over phone from Nagpur. The pilot, he said, had apologised profusely for the event and explained that this was something totally unexpected as the aircraft was brand new.

The Chief Minister and Mr. Premachandran were scheduled to attend a meeting on the Mullaperiyar dam row between Kerala and Tamil Nadu convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the evening. The Chief Minister and Mr. Balakrishnan would stay back in Delhi to attend a crucial two-day meeting of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau beginning Saturday. The meeting has been convened to discuss some crucial issues relating to the CPI(M) Kerala unit and the LDF government in the context of the electoral setback that the party and the alliance had suffered in the Lok Sabha elections.