An Air India aircraft, with 122 passengers and six crew members on board, flying from Abu Dhabi to New Delhi had to make an emergency landing at Nawabshah airport in Pakistan’s Sindh province on Monday morning after a computer display system in the cockpit showed all three hydraulic systems of the aircraft had “overheated”, but this was later found erroneous and described as a “false alarm”.
Air India will hold a full-fledged inquiry into the incident, while DGCA, the aviation regulator, has already ordered a probe.
“I have been informed by the engineering department the computer display system malfunctioned. It was later changed. There was nothing wrong with the hydraulics,” Air India chairman Rohit Nandan told this newspaper. Since the aircraft was an A-319 aircraft, Airbus could be asked to join the probe.
Air India sent a relief aircraft with 20 staffers — pilots, engineers, loaders and commercial staff — to fetch the passengers back. After landing at Nawabshah, the engineers checked Flight AI-940, replacing the computer display system, after which both aircraft flew back to New Delhi in the evening.
After reaching IGI Airport, 65-year-old passenger V. Radhakrishnan told news agencies that passengers were told “not to move around, to fasten seatbelts and be prepared for anything” as the plane was landing in emergency conditions.
“Fortunately, nothing happened.” He also said Nawabshah airport was very small and “there were literally no facilities... Though the flight landed safely, people were in panic. When there was a delay in arrival of our rescue aircraft, some people got angry. We were told by the pilot after landing that the hydraulics systems had developed some technical problem.” Another passenger, a 15-year-old girl, was quoted as saying: “I was scared what may happen when we were told that our aircraft has developed some problem.”