Saudi-bound AIE flight makes emergency landing in Thiruvananthapuram after ‘tail strike’ in Kozhikode

Pilot requests precautionary landing and diverts flight after the plane’s tail touches runway surface in Kozhikode

In the second such incident in less than a week, an Air India Express (AIE) flight from Kozhikode to Dammam made an emergency landing at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Friday after a reported ‘tail strike’. Around 174 passengers, including six crew members on board the flight (IX 385), had some anxious moments after the rear of the aircraft fuselage hit the runway during take-off at the Calicut International Airport in Kozhikode at 9.44 am.

According to airport sources, the aircraft was forced to make an ‘emergency landing’ after the ‘tail skid’ attached to the base of the tail, which detects ‘tail strike’ and alerts the pilot, sustained damage during the ‘tail strike.’ The pilot requested a precautionary landing and diverted the flight to the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport after the plane’s tail “touched the runway surface” in Kozhikode, said the sources.

Initially, the flight was scheduled to make a landing here at 11.03 a.m. which was later rescheduled to 12.15 p.m. as the pilot decided to exhaust the fuel in a bid to reduce the weight of the aircraft by flying around the airport before landing here in “emergency mode”. “The aircraft, a Boeing 738, was able to land safely at the airport and all the passengers were shifted to the transit lounge. The emergency was also withdrawn shortly after the landing and no flight services were affected by the emergency landing,” said an airport spokesperson.

The airline company chose the Thiruvananthapuram airport for the landing as it has a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility. Further, the aircraft had the fuel to fly for around 6.30 hours and the body of the aircraft has structural weight limitations for landing with a full fuel load.

It is not known immediately what went wrong during the take-off. Attempting for take-off before attaining the take-off speed at times lead to such incidents as when the nose of the aircraft is raised too early or sharply. Only a detailed inquiry can find the actual cause of the accident, said sources in the airport. The passengers were flown to their destination on the same aircraft around 5.15 p.m. after the problem was fixed. The pilot and crew were changed before flying back to Dammam, said airline sources.

On February 19, a full emergency was declared at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport after an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram reported ‘nose wheel tyre decap’. Later, aircraft IX 540 with 156 people on board, including crew, made a safe emergency landing at the airport early in the morning.