New Delhi:
Days after the Mangalore air crash, an Air India Express plane with 112 passengers and six crew members on board plunged a few thousand feet due to an airpocket while flying from Dubai to Pune, but no one was hurt.
The incident occurred on May 26, four days after the major air disaster at Mangalore in which 158 people were killed.
Both the pilots of the flight IX-212 have been taken off duty pending investigations, which have been launched by Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, an airline spokesperson said.
While the spokesperson maintained the plane had "lost some height", airport sources said the incident occurred when the Boeing 737-800 was running on auto-pilot mode as it hit the airpocket and plunged over 5,000 feet when it was flying over Muscat.
Maintaining that no one was hurt in the incident, the spokesperson said the commander and the co-pilot have been de-rostered pending investigations and added that the actual cause of the incident would be known only after the probe.
In a statement, the spokesperson said the Air India Express flight "lost some height" and not 15,000 feet as reported.
"There are no reports of any injuries to passengers and crew. The pilots have been de-rostered to enable them to participate in the enquiry. The matter is being investigated," the spokesperson said.
Official sources also denied reports that there was a threat of a near-miss when the Boeing hit the airpocket and got into the way of other aircraft flying on the route.