Narrow escape for Air India passengers in New York, as systems fail during landing

NEW DELHI: About 370 passengers onboard an Air India flight no 101 between New Delhi and New York had a narrow escape on Tuesday last week after the plane’s instrument landing system failed, when the Boeing 777 aircraft was about to land at New York’s JFK airport forcing the crew to abort landing and do a go around.

The instrument landing system (ILS) failed at the last minute forcing the pilots to abort touching down and then they spent close to one half an hour in air trying to figure out — in coordination with Air Traffic controllers of JFK airport — an airport in NYC or a nearby city with good visibility. Running low on fuel, they quickly needed a decent chance of sighting a runway early enough to make a visual approach due to the failed ILS.

“We are really, you know, stuck and there’s no fuel.” Air India’s senior commander Rustom Palia was heard saying in a New York JFK Airport’s air traffic control (ATC) on final approach to land there. Palia and Captain Sushant Singh, second-in-command, were flying the plane that suffered a string of multiple instrument failures on final approach.


The plane finally landed at the Newark Liberty International Airport, which offered a better visibility than JFK airport, 38 minutes after they had done a go-around at the JFK airport.