india

Updated: Jul 04, 2019 21:27 IST

Around 128 passengers on board an IndiGo flight had a lucky escape when its Airbus 320 aircraft from Kolkata to Patna made a suspected “hard landing” at the Jai Prakash Narayan International airport here on Thursday.

The aircraft had been grounded following the rough landing.

A hard landing occurs when an aircraft hits the ground with a greater vertical speed and force than in a normal landing. According to the Wikipedia the term hard landing usually implies that the pilot still has total or partial control over the aircraft, as opposed to an uncontrolled descent into terrain (a crash).

The Bangalore – Kolkata – Patna – Lucknow – Mumbai flight (6E-6359), which made the suspected hard landing around 9.30am on Thursday, was grounded at the airport here, leaving all its passengers to Lucknow and Mumbai stranded. A total 165 passengers were booked for departure from Patna, said airlines sources.

Airport sources said the aircraft’s landing gear could have been damaged because of the hard landing.

“The IndiGo is sending its technical team from New Delhi to assess the damage to the aircraft because of the suspected hard landing. It will also download information on the extent of hard landing from the cockpit,” said a functionary of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here.

Meanwhile, the airline is believed to have instituted an internal inquiry into the incident. It had also reported the incident to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Efforts to reach IndiGo officials proved futile. Its station manager Rupesh Singh guided this reporter to the airline’s spokesperson, saying he was not authorised to speak to the media.

IndiGo spokesperson Sakshi Batra did not respond to phone calls. In response to a text message at 3pm on Thursday, she wrote, “Will send you a statement.” On being reminded at 7.35pm, she texted back, “You haven’t received (any statement) because we haven’t released any statement as yet. Will share in sometime (sic).”

Hindustan Times did not receive any statement from the IndiGo till the time of filing of this report at 9.25pm.