As many as 77 passengers, including Information Minister Roshan Baig, three judges of the Karnataka High Court, and an MLC, had a narrow escape when Bengaluru-Hubballi SpiceJet SG 1085 aircraft veered off the runway at Hubballi airport on Sunday evening.

The 78-seater Bombardier Q-400 aircraft with four crew members was on time.

However, because of the bad weather, the aircraft hovered around the airport for over 20 minutes before landing. But as one of the tyres got deflated, the plane veered to the left and skidded off the recently expanded runway and came to a halt at a distance of 50 metres from the tarmac.

The passengers were thankful to the pilot of the aircraft.

“The pilot had announced that the landing would be delayed because of bad weather. We hovered around for 20 minutes before the landing. It was rough landing and the plane started shaking. We thought the pilot had almost lost control, but he managed to save us all,” Mr. Baig told The Hindu .

Mahantesh Kavatagimath, MLC, said that had it not been for the good work of the pilot, they wouldn’t have survived.

“Sanjay Saxena was the pilot and Karthik Swami was the co-pilot. His announcements made us feel that there will not be any problem and that only the landing would be delayed. And we stayed calm,” Mr. Kavatagimath said.

High Court judges B.S. Patil, Manohar and Ratnamala were also on the same flight. As the flight was badly damaged and there was no scope for making alternative arrangements, the return flight to Bengaluru (SG 1086) was cancelled. Now the passengers will be sent to Bengaluru by the Monday evening flight, the authorities said.

Two Chinese nationals, who were to catch a connecting flight from Bengaluru, took a cab to return to reach the city.

Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Rajendra Cholan said the DGCA authorities would arrive in Hubballi on Monday to inquire into the mishap.

Police Commissioner Ravindra Prasad clarified that none of the passengers was injured in the accident.

Passengers included Minister Roshan Baig