Due to the quick thinking and actions taken by two pilots on an Indian flight, 48 passengers and crew are alive after a technical issue.
On Sunday, the Guwahati-bound Air India plane had to make an emergency landing. Shortly after take-off from Silchair in Assam, one of the nose wheels of the ATR 9760 aircraft, fell off the plane.
Ground crews noticed something fall from the plane and alerted the pilots, Captain Urmila Yadav and co-pilot Captain Yashu.
The pilot, Captain Urmila, along with co-pilot Captain Yashu, after hovering the plane above the LGB international airport in Guwahati for more than an hour, landed it safely. Using good piloting, Captain Urmila decided to go along with the landing. They kept the aircrast circling the airport for more than two hours to burn off fuel to reduce the risk of a fire and prepare for the emergency landing.
To perform such a landing, the pilots had to land on the main landing gear and keep the nose in the air, , using air brakes to generate drag and reduce the aircraft's speed. Burning off the fuel also helped to make the plane lighter, which aids in a safe emergency landing.
Before landing, the pilots flew low above the ground so that engineers could see what the failure was from a close distance.
Although the landing was safe, the problem caused panic on board.
"The crew asked us to fasten our seat belts and announced the plane might have to make an emergency landing because of a technical snag. It created panic inside the aircraft," passenger Ratu Hazarika told The Telegraph.
Passengers were prepared for a possible river landing and were shown how to use the life jackets. Two passengers fainted due to the stressful situation. While making the emergency landing, the plane faced intense turbulence.
Payal Jain Agarwal praised the cabin crew. "All along, they were very calm and composed, attending to the fainting and panic-stricken passengers, offering them water and helping them relax."
Hazarika said. "When it touched down safely, I felt as if I had been given a second life."
The passengers were not told what had happened until after landing.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi congratulated the pilots. "Hats off to you and your co-pilot for your daring and courageous act which saved the precious lives of the passengers," he told Captain Urmila over the phone.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
