Air India diverts flight to Mumbai after freak accident in TN

Trichy/Mumbai: The wheels of an Air India Express flight to Dubai from Tiruchirappalli or Trichy in Tamil Nadu hit the airport's compound wall while taking off with 136 passengers on Friday. All passengers and crew are safe, an official said.

The flight IX-611 which took off at around 1.20 a.m., was then diverted to Mumbai where it made an emergency landing safely around 5.40 a.m. An alternative flight was arranged to take the passengers to Dubai.

Air India has taken the pilot and co-pilot off duties pending an investigation and the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation has been informed of the incident, the airline tweeted.

While the damage to the Boeing B737-800 airplane's wheels is not known, a portion of the nearly five foot compound wall at the Tiruchirappalli Airport was damaged, an airport official told IANS.

The airport authorities have started a probe into the freak accident while technicians in Mumbai are examining the damaged aircraft.

On hearing about the incident Tamil Nadu Tourism Minister N. Natarajan visited the Trichy airport and inspected the damage.