How Air India Express pilots dealt with the panic in the air over Trichy

New Delhi:

A report of a hydraulic failure on an Air India Express flight from Tiruchirappalli to Sharjah and its subsequent holding for more than two hours may have caused panic on the ground, but everything was always under control in the cockpit, senior airline sources told NDTV .

Flight AXB 613 took off from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu at 5.40 pm on Friday and landed at the same airport at around 8.15 pm.

The following has happened in the meantime:

The sources said the landing gear retracted normally after the plane, a Boeing 737-800, took off.

When the landing gear or landing gear was successfully stowed, the Cockpit Master alert sounded, indicating a system malfunction. Sensors detected that oil had leaked from the hydraulic system that controls the landing gear.

Otherwise, the plane flew normally, the sources said, adding that the 737-800 has redundancies in the hydraulic system to handle such situations.

The pilots decided to return to Tiruchirappalli airport and decided against an “overweight landing” with full fuel on board. The aircraft maintained a holding pattern a short distance from the city to ensure fuel burn and landing weight was acceptable for a normal approach to Tiruchirappalli airport.

The landing gear was manually extended and locked on the first attempt, allowing the aircraft to make a normal landing.

Preparations for an emergency landing were now being made on the ground. Tiruchirappalli Airport Director Gopalakrishnan said 20 ambulances and 18 fire engines were on standby.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu had also asked officials to remain alert and the aviation regulator’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was busy coordinating.

“Will investigate the cause”

An Air India Express spokesperson said the cause of the disruption was being investigated and passenger safety was its primary concern.

“We are aware of media reports relating to an Air India Express flight on the Tiruchirappalli-Sharjah route. We would like to clarify that no emergency has been declared by operational crew. After a technical problem was reported, the aircraft circled several times in the “It is a generous precaution to land in a designated area to reduce fuel and weight given the runway length before making a safe precautionary landing,” the spokesman said.

“The cause of the disruption is being properly investigated. In the meantime, an alternative aircraft will be arranged for our guests to continue their journey. We regret the inconvenience and reiterate our commitment to prioritizing safety in all aspects of our operations,” the spokesperson added.