AI flight makes emergency landing in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: A Kolkata bound Air India (AI) flight carrying 152 passengers and crew from Bengaluru made an emergency landing at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here this morning due to a technical snag.

Reports said the AI-772 Bengaluru-Kolkata flight developed some technical snag within an hour of taking off from Bengaluru this morning. The pilot informed the air traffic control at Kolkata, which allowed the flight to make an emergency landing in Bhubaneswar.

Talking to media persons, an Odia couple said there was no one at the airport to help the passengers after the flight made emergency landing at about 9 AM. “Some officials who came in later told us to sit at the lounge. They provided us tea after we requested them,” they added.

Asked whether the airport officials have informed them about the time the flight would take off, the couple said the officials told them that they are doing a trial run. “The technical engineer who came in later told us that they will have another trial run, after 11.30 AM. But at 11.30 AM it was announced that the trial run would be conducted at 12.15 PM. And now they are telling us that they cannot say about the flight take-off time. If the trial run fails, another fight may come from Kolkata to take the passengers to their destination,” they said.

Till reports last came in, the flight finally left for Kolkata after nearly eight hours.