Mangaluru: In a shocking incident which brought back fearful memories of the 2010 Mangaluru crash which resulted in the death of 158 people, an Air India Express flight from Dubai that landed at Mangaluru International Airport Sunday evening, veered off the taxiway while on its way to the terminal building.
Flight IX 384 had departed from Dubai at 12.39 pm local time. "The flight carried out a 'missed approach' at 5.32 pm and thereafter in the second attempt, landed at Mangaluru at 5.42 pm. The aircraft while turning on the taxiway, entered the katcha portion of the air strip apparently due to high speed as per the observation of air traffic control (ATC)," an official press statement from the airport said.
“All 183 passengers plus six crew members are safe. There appears to be no damage to the aircraft with Air India engineers trying to tow the aircraft away for further inspection. The aircraft location in the strip is being assessed before resuming operations.
The delayed departures are being cleared with approval of DGCA,” the press statement added.
Sources on the condition of anonymity said that weather conditions were not very good which might have contributed to the incident. “The flight veered off to the right side, crossed a small gutter and stopped on the grassy part on the way to the terminal building. It would have been a problem had it veered off to the other side. All the passengers were immediately deboarded and taken in buses to the airport terminal safely,” sources said. People staying near the airport said that they saw the flight (which could not land in the first attempt) fly low (to make a second attempt). The airline is said to have ordered an internal investigation.
On May 22, 2010 Air India Express IX 812 overshot the runway and fell into a valley, about 100 metres below resulting in the death of 158 people including 6 crew members. The airport is situated on a hill, 15 km from Mangaluru city. Meanwhile, Minister U.T. Khader has demanded a high level inquiry into the incident. He reportedly spoke to DGCA officials stressing the need for an inquiry to ascertain if the incident happened due to pilot error, a problem in the flight or lack of facilities.
