AI pilot aborts takeoff, saves passengers in nick of time

Mumbai: Around 150 passengers flying to Kochi on August 26 had a narrow escape with disaster after their Air India flight from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport developed a technical snag and the takeoff had to be aborted. The passengers were disembarked and managed to continue the journey four hours later in a different aircraft.

According to a spokesperson for AI, flight AI 054, which was scheduled to takeoff at 5.30 am from Mumbai for Kochi had150 passengers and was delayed as it had to be grounded due to technical issues. However, as it took some time to replace the aircraft, the passengers had to wait for nearly three hours. After the replacement aircraft was made available, the flight departed for its destination at around 9 am. The spokesperson however refused to elaborate on the technical problem.

Sources said that the Airbus 319 plane had started taxing for take-off when the pilot reported some technical problem in the plane and decided to abort the take off and return to the bay. Engineers of the national carrier then inspected the aircraft for nearly two hours, during which the passengers remained seated in the plane. However, after the inspection, the engineers declared the aircraft unfit for flying after which the passengers were deboarded.

“The stranded passengers were then taken back to the terminal building and went through the security check-in process all over again to board the replaced aircraft,” the source claimed. The average flying time between Mumbai and Kochi is an hour and forty-two minutes.