Diverted AI flight lands in city; sparks concern, triggers political uproar
After an inquiry, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Monday that the flight was diverted due to a suspected malfunctioning of the weather radar of the aircraft
Air India passenger flight
CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: An Air India flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi with about 150 people, including five MPs, on board was forced to make an emergency landing at Chennai airport following a mid-air technical snag on Sunday night.
While such snags and diversions have come to become common in the recent past, it raised concerns after senior Congress leader KC Venugopal MP claimed that the flight came "frighteningly close to tragedy" because another aircraft was reportedly on the same runway, triggering a political uproar after BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya said the Parliamentarian should be put on no-fly list if he is found misrepresenting facts.
After an inquiry, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Monday that the flight was diverted due to a suspected malfunctioning of the weather radar of the aircraft.
The crew observed that the weather information depicted on the weather RADAR was not accurate, and suspected that the weather RADAR was malfunctioning, prompting the diversion of the flight to Chennai, it said in a statement. However, during inspection, no deficiency was observed but "WX radar transreceiver was replaced with a serviceable one" as a precautionary measure.
To avoid overweight landing and burn extra fuel, the aircraft, with clearance from the Air Traffic Controller, orbited 25 nautical miles northeast of Chennai for 43 minutes from 9.25 pm. "After the aircraft was cleared for approach Runway 25 at Chennai, at 22:19 aircraft was instructed to carry out a missed approach by ATC as departing Gulf Air flight GFA053 reported debris on left side of runway. Apron control carried out inspection of the runway and nothing was observed. Aircraft was given landing clearance and aircraft landed safely at 22:39 IST," it said.
The airline also said it was due to the suspected presence of debris that the landing was aborted. Wading into the issue, Malviya said if the Congress leader alleged that there was another aircraft on the runway and AI contradicted it, one of them was misrepresenting facts.
“Social media posts from supposedly responsible people cannot go unscrutinised. If the allegation is true, Chennai ATC and AI have much to answer for. If not, Venugopal should face consequences, including being put on a no-fly list for spreading falsehoods," he said.