Two Air India Flights Make Emergency Landings

April 9, 2007
A310 and Boeing 767 both had landing gear problems. No one injured in Monday's emergencies.

Two state-run Air India flights made emergency landings in the Indian capital on Monday following landing gear problems, but all passengers were safe, an airport official said.

Flights at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport were disrupted for nearly three hours after a Bangkok-New Delhi Airbus A-310 landed after circling over the airport for nearly an hour, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

All 183 people on board, including 14 crew members, disembarked from the aircraft using a ladder.

Later Monday, an Air India 767 Boeing flight coming from Dubai also faced a landing gear problem and made an emergency landing with 65 passengers on board, the official said.

There were no injuries to the passengers, the official said.

Air India officials were not available for comments.

Airport authorities used a second runway to clear the backlog of flights.

Mukesh Jadav, a passenger on the Airbus A-310 aircraft, said the experience was scary.

"The aircraft had descended and we saw the runway, but suddenly it took off and the pilot announced there was problem in opening the landing gear and everybody panicked," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted him as saying.

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