BA flight makes ‘emergency’ landing

A British Airways (BA) craft, Boeing 777 Flight198, with 165 passengers and 25 crew members on board, made a priority landing 45 minutes after it took off from Sahar International Airport on Saturday. The flight was bound for Heathrow Airport, London.

The pilot reportedly informed air traffic control (ATC) about an unusual sound from the engine and requested permission to land. “The BA flight landed under full emergency conditions,” an airport spokesperson said. The pilot, according to ATC sources, dumped fuel over the sea before landing.

According to sources at Mumbai airport’s engineering division, shortly after take-off, the landing gear that was supposed to retract failed to do so. This becomes a problem due to the drag it causes, especially for aircraft like a 777 which has huge landing gear.

But BA officials said the problem was not with the retraction of the landing gear but with flaps that closed when the landing gear is retracted.

BA spokesperson for South Asia Radhika Raikhy said the landing was “normal”. The pilot felt there was a problem and thought it safer to turn back she added. Fuel dumping is necessary to make sure the aircraft is not too heavy when it lands. Passengers were provided accommodation as the snag could not be rectified after four hours.

An official BA statement said: “We apologise to passengers for the delay. Safety of our customers is of paramount importance.”  At the time of going to press, the aircraft was still grounded.