The Kingfisher flight was forced to do an emergency landing ten minutes after it took off at 8.30am for Hyderabad from Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) after its right propeller engine caught fire.
“Gotta give it to the pilot, man…he did a helluva job,” was the reaction of one of the passengers on board the Airbus A-320 that safely landed on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009 by a skillful pilot, Chesley B Sullenberger III. The plane had flown into a flock of geese minutes after taking off from La Guardia airport in New York for Charlotte, and both its engines were on fire.
Just a day after the second anniversary of the miraculous escape of all the 155 passengers and crew on Hudson River, the same compliments are due for Kingfisher’s Capt Raja Ramachandran.
He almost did a replay of the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’, except that he landed back where he should have – on the runway – and not on a river.
The Kingfisher flight (1T 4817), an ATR 72-500 aircraft, piloted by Capt Ramachandran, was forced to do an emergency landing ten minutes after it took off at 8.30am for Hyderabad from Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) after its right propeller engine caught fire.
Though Ramachandran and his co-pilot, Pratyush Tiwari, were alerted about the fire on the cockpit panel itself, a passenger seated by the right window, too, saw it and hollered for the stewardess who ran to the cockpit to inform the pilots.
“The cockpit crew immediately took necessary action as per established procedures and as a matter of abundant precaution decided to immediately return back to Bangalore,” said an official statement from Kingfisher Airlines.
Upon landing, all the 27 the passengers were immediately deplaned and the fire and emergency services were pressed into action to douse the fire emanating from the engine.
Passengers of IT 4817 told DNA that the flight was actually scheduled to take off at 7.25 am and arrive at Hyderabad one-and-a-half hours later, but was delayed by an hour due to a “technical snag”.
“Finally, the aircraft took off at 8.30 am but after being airborne for a few minutes we experienced mild turbulence and noticed a fire in the right engine,” said a passenger. According to flight stats, the aircraft finally took off from Bangalore at 2.52 pm and safely reached Hyderabad at about 4.15pm.
Kingfisher’s official statement, however, said the pilot brought the plane back due to a technical snag and that there was no fire in the engine. The aircraft was check by the flight safety team before its afternoon departure. A preliminary report will be submitted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday.
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