The 176 passengers and six crew members on board the Calicut-Dammam Air India Express flight (IX 385) experienced some anxiety after the aircraft’s tail reportedly collided with the runway surface during take-off at Calicut International Airport at 9.44 a.m. on February 24.
The AIE flight was forced to make a “emergency landing” at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport at 12.15 p.m. after its tail was reportedly damaged during the incident. Sources say that after the plane’s tail “touched the runway surface,” the pilot requested a precautionary landing and diverted the flight to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.
The flight was originally scheduled to land here at 11.03 a.m., but that time was later changed to 12.15 p.m. because the pilot started flying about the airport to burn up fuel in an effort to lighten the plane’s load before landing here in “emergency mode.”
The Boeing 738 aircraft landed successfully at the airport, and all of the passengers were moved to the transit lounge. No flight services were impacted by the emergency landing, according to a representative for the airport, which also saw the emergency declared rescinded shortly after the landing.
The airline firm selected Trivandrum Airport for the landing since Thiruvananthapuram is home to one of its Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities. The plane also had enough fuel to keep flying for around 6.30 hours, and the structural weight of the fuselage of the plane prevents it from landing with its full fuel load.
“What went wrong during the aeroplane takeoff is not immediately known. Such events occasionally resulted from attempting to take off before reaching the take-off speed. The true cause of the crash can only be determined by a thorough investigation, according to an airport source.
As an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram reported a “nose wheel tyre decap,” a full emergency was declared at the airport on February 19. Later, at dawn, the aircraft IX 540 safely made an emergency landing at the airport with 156 people aboard, including the crew.
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