Narrow escape for 180 passengers: Air India flight forced to abort landing just 200 feet above Chennai runway

A potentially dangerous situation was averted at Chennai airport on Wednesday morning when an Air India flight from Singapore aborted its landing just 200 feet above the ground, saving all 180 passengers on board.

The flight, scheduled to land at 10:15 am, was on final approach when the pilots decided to execute a go-around due to what aviation authorities later described as an "unstabilised approach." The aircraft, affected by crosswinds and a steep descent, circled the airport and touched down safely on its second attempt about 30 minutes later.

Airport officials confirmed that the landing was called off as a precaution. “A safe landing requires a controlled descent rate, correct speed, and alignment. In this case, the descent was too steep, and there was a sudden shift in wind speed,” a person familiar with the incident told ToI.


While there were no injuries, the incident has raised renewed safety concerns, especially in light of similar recent episodes at Chennai airport. Last October, an IndiGo flight had to abort its landing in similar conditions. In March, a separate flight arriving from Mumbai sustained tail damage during touchdown.

Authorities, including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), are expected to seek a detailed report from the airline and the Air Traffic Control team on duty at the time of the incident.

In October 2023, an IndiGo flight from Jaipur had to perform a touch-and-go due to similar crosswind and alignment issues. More recently, in March, a Mumbai-Chennai flight suffered a tail strike during landing, adding to the list of runway-related scares at the airport.

(With inputs from ToI)