Close shave for passengers of Sri Lankan Airline flight

NEW DELHI: Passengers onboard a Sri Lankan Airline plane had a miraculous escape today when two tyres of the aircraft burst after landing at the IGI airport here.

The incident took place at around 6.55 PM when Sri Lankan Airline flight (UL 195), with over 70 passengers and crew onboard from Colombo, landed after second attempt, airport sources said.

The pilots had aborted their first attempt of landing due to turbulence caused by the crosswinds at the airport and the air traffic control tower asked them to take a go-around for the second attempt, they said.

As soon as the flight landed and was on taxiway, the pilots messaged the ATC tower about some technical problem saying the brakes of the aircraft had failed.

A team of Delhi International Airport Limited officials were sent to tow the aircraft to the terminal building, but after reaching there they found that two rear tyres of the Boeing 737 plane had burst, the sources said.

As towing the aircraft in that state was not possible, the passengers, who all were safe, and baggage were offloaded at the taxiway itself and taken in buses to the terminal building, they said.

With the aircraft stuck on the taxiway, the flight movement at the airport was affected and the taxiway was closed for operations and aircraft had to take detour to reach the terminal.

The airline was getting a new set of wheels and tyres and then the aircraft would be towed to the terminal, sources said.