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“Our flight was just about to take off when the pilot clamped the brakes hard, causing a heavy jolt. We then saw three helicopters landing, one after the other, in front of our flight,” said Vijay Verma, who runs an advertising agency in Mumbai.
“It was a heavy jolt, but no one was hurt,” another passenger said, but what followed was unbearable as the emergency braking caused four tyres to burst and then sent the temperature inside the aircraft soaring.
“It wasn’t just the tyre bursts. The engine heated up and the fuel tank was full,” said Pranav Khullar, a government employee with the Ministry of Finance.
The flight landed in New Delhi at 2.45 pm, with only 120 of the original 145 passengers, the rest having cancelled their tickets after the incident. All were indignant at the IAF and most grateful to the pilot, S S Kohli, whose timely action, they said, ensured their safety.
It took airport authorities at least three hours to understand the nature of the incident, they said. “It was the pilot who announced that some IAF helicopters had landed on the same runway from nowhere. Our life was saved due to Captain Kohli’s presence of mind,” said Satyajit, one of the passengers.
Khullar agreed: “Had it not been for Captain Kohli’s instant action, all of us would have been dead. He saved our lives. I thank him again.”
Soch and Anata, two disabled sisters from Israel, felt the three hours they were made to sit inside the plane after the incident were “quite unfair”. “This does not happen in Israel. We just kept sitting inside the grounded airplane for three hours before changing. It is difficult to understand why,” Anata said
It was an agonising wait for Anshul Dhar too. “I had travelled from Dubai to Delhi via a connecting flight from Mumbai. My father is in hospital. We started from Dubai at 10 pm last night and I insisted on this 9 am flight when I had the choice of taking the 10 am flight. Now we got delayed by over four hours,” Dhar said.
The President’s entourage of Pratap 1 helicopters had landed on the runway when the Indian Airlines flight was ready for take off, after clearance from the Air Traffic Controller. The flight, which was initially scheduled for departure at 9 am, finally left Mumbai airport at 1 pm.
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This is once again the case of putting high Government officials above the requirements of safety. Na, na, how can a President be kept hovering a little longer in a helicopter? That Indian Airlines fellow can use his brakes and blow his horn. We will land as we planned. May be these helicopter pilots think it is Channi Chowk noon time traffic.
Who were the intelligent officials who did not allow to evacuate passengers to safety. It must be a procedure to follow whenever there is any kind of emergency. Were they waiting for fire to catch the plane and then they wanted to showcase their disaster management. Oh God give some brains to authorities. We Indians are the worst when it comes to something critical.
Can't understand why passengers were made to sit inside the aircraft for another 3 hours. I would have expected a quick evacuation! Probably the airport officials were trying to figure out what to do in case of such an unprecendented crisis. Typical of our bureaucratic responses to all crisis!
Sir It seems the case of a serious goof up by the ATC people. One can not easily blame the IAF pilots and Captain Kohli did a tremendous job in averting a tragedy. I am sure the truth will come out after the analysis of voice recorders and the conversation and directions exchanged between ATC , IAF pilots and Captain Kohli's are decoded. Hope fully some constrictive measures will be taken after the enquiry report and the incident will not be put under the carpet. The guilty must be punsihed nort only for the fiasco but also because it was a bad publicity mainly for safety of flights in the country because of some body's fault. But in the meantime, THREE CHEERS FOR CAPTAIN KOHLI
What kind of idiots man the ATC in New Delhi god only knows. Further, the IAF thinks that as it is ferrying the President around, it can do as it wishes. This had all the trappings of a maajor disaster which is waiting to happen. I am not sure we will be lucky to have a good pilot the next time. Do something for gods sake. You are dealing with precious lives here.