Passengers on a Go Air flight can thank two brothers for saving their lives. The boys, Nitin and Rohit Kumar, aged 17 and 21, respectively, were sitting on the terrace of their home on Wednesday evening when they saw a fire on the tail of the plane. The plane was on way to Bengaluru. It was flying over Ghoyla Dairy area, near Dwarka, in south west Delhi.

The brothers informed their family, who alerted the police. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) was informed and it asked the pilot to return to the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi.

Nitin said that the plane looked like a rocket. “It was ascending and there was heavy smoke and flames. We got terrified and rushed inside the house to alert our elders. We thought the plane would crash any time.”

The fire created panic among passengers. Aditi Kulkarni, a Delhi-based psychologist who was on board, said that they could see flames and all passengers got up from their seats.

“It was horrifying. But the crew and pilots remained silent. After about 10 minutes, the flames disappeared. Even after landing at IGI, the crew did not inform us about anything and we had to wait for about an hour to board another plane. The flight finally took off around 10.30pm,” Kulkarni said.

The view of the plane in flames also created panic among residents as the incident led to rumours that the aircraft was crashing. “The plane was visible for about 30 seconds. After we raised an alarm, other residents also spotted it. While some said it would crash, others said that it was due to a bird hit. A BSF aircraft had crashed near Dwarka last year and people were reminded of that,” said Navneet Kumar, Nitin’s dad.

“Two witnesses informed the Delhi police and a message was conveyed to Airport Operations Control Centre and the ATC. After some efforts, the flight was identified as Go Air flight - G8 557 - which had departed for Bengaluru at 7.28 pm,” said a police officer.