Five school students, who were partying on the terrace of a house in South Delhi last weekend, apparently helped save over 350 lives when they saw flames coming out of the engine of an aircraft that had just taken off and alerted the police.
Their swift action followed by the urgent response of the police led the Air Traffic Control (ATC) to clear the runway for the New York-bound Air India plane to return to base and land safely under emergency conditions on last Saturday, police said on Friday.
Air India officials said the pilots had noticed the flames soon after take-off and had already sought permission for an emergency landing from the ATC. All those on board were safe.
They said the boys could have noticed the plane when it was returning to land. Air India's Boeing 777 (Long Range) plane, with 339 passengers and 16 crew on board, was operating as flight AI-101 from New Delhi to New York.
It took off around 0130 hours on the intervening night of July 16 and 17 as per schedule. Soon after take off, the right engine developed technical trouble, prompting the pilots to immediately turn around.
At that time, five school students - Kartik Bhadolia, Jaideep Gosai, Himanshu Soni, Mannan Soni and Malik Gilani, who were partying on the terrace of a house in Saket, spotted sparks and flame from the engine.
They immediately called 100 and informed the police, which informed the ATC tower, police sources said. Air India officials said: "The pilots witnessed problem in the right engine soon after take off and immediately asked for emergency landing".
The aircraft has electronic alarm systems in place to inform the pilot about any such incident, they said, adding that the plane probably suffered a bird hit while taking off.