Dubai-bound Air India Express makes emergency landing

Passengers scheduled to reach Dubai today by another flight

About 195 passengers and crew members of an Air India Express flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai had to endure an emergency landing immediately after take-off.

Air India Express flight IX 539 was already delayed by two hours due to technical faults, before it took-off only to detect engine problems again.

According to reports, the AI Express flight, which was scheduled to take-off at 4.30pm [India time] only took-off at about 7.52pm [India time] after rectifying an engine fault.

But the pilot detected the problem again and informed Air Traffic Controllers and returned for an emergency landing after flying for more than an hour. Civil Defence was ready at the airport.

Families and friends of passengers in Dubai were anxious after hearing media reports of a plane with a faulty engine flying around Kochi airport to burn off fuel.

The passengers, mostly Indians working in the UAE, were promised to be flown to Dubai on Wednesday morning at around 6.30am by another aircraft.

This is the second incident in less than a week at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Last week 152 passengers of an Air India flight escaped unhurt after aircraft tyres burst upon landing.

Early this month on August 2, Air India flight AI 962, with 369 passengers onboard, from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Karippur International Airport, Calicut, also escaped a tyre burst on landing.

Similarly, on August 16, two tyres of an Air India Airbus 320 burst while landing at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport. However, all 152 passengers were safe.

Two tyres of IA 264 Male–Chennai flight via Thiruvananthapuram burst immediately after touching down the runway.

Five months ago, Air India Express IX 193, from Lucknow to Dubai was diverted to Mumbai for an emergency landing, after a part of the nose wheel was found on the runway following its take-off from Lucknow airport.