Exclusive: How Air India Express Pilots Handled Mid-Air Scare Over Trichy

A report of hydraulic failure from a Tiruchirappalli-Sharjah Air India Express flight and its subsequent holding pattern for over two hours may have caused panic on the ground, but things were always under control inside the cockpit, senior sources from the airline have told NDTV. 

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

Here's what happened in the interim:

The sources said that after the plane, a Boeing 737-800, was airborne, the landing gear was retracted normally. 

When the landing gear, or undercarriage, was stowed successfully, the cockpit master caution, which indicates a system malfunction, sounded. Sensors detected that oil had drained out of the hydraulic system which controls the undercarriage. 

The aircraft flew normally in all other respects, the sources said, adding that the 737-800 has redundancies built into the hydraulic system to deal with such situations. 

The pilots decided to return to the Tiruchirappalli airport and chose not to undertake an 'overweight landing' with full fuel on board. The aircraft maintained a holding pattern at a short distance from the city to ensure that the fuel was burnt off and the landing weight was acceptable for making a normal approach to the Tiruchirappalli airport. 

The undercarriage was manually deployed and locked into position at the first attempt, enabling the aircraft to make a normal landing. 

On the ground, meanwhile, preparations had been made for an emergency landing. Tiruchirappalli Airport Director Gopalakrishnan said that 20 ambulances and 18 fire engines were on standby. 

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

'Will Investigate Cause'

An Air India Express spokesperson said the cause of the snag would be investigated and the safety of passengers was their main concern. 

"We are aware of media reports related to an Air India Express flight operating on the Tiruchirappalli-Sharjah route. We would like to clarify that no emergency was declared by the operating crew. After reporting a technical snag, the aircraft circled multiple times in the designated area as an abundant precaution, to reduce fuel and weight considering the runway length, before making a safe precautionary landing," the spokesperson said.

"The cause of the snag will be duly investigated. In the interim, an alternative aircraft is being arranged for the onward journey of our guests. We regret the inconvenience and reiterate our commitment to prioritising safety in every aspect of our operations," the spokesperson added.