Nishar Mohammed, Roni Antony & John Wilbert
Port Blair, Dec 23: An Kolkata bound IndiGo flight today made emergency landing at Port Blair airport minutes after taking off from the same airport due to mid-air engine snags.
According to report IndiGo flight 6616 with 184 passengers including two infants took off from Veer Savarkar International Airport of Port Blair at 10.17 AM and landed back safely at 11.30 AM.
Inside source, who doesn’t want his name to be quoted said that after pilots reported engine snag, all emergency services in Andaman were alerted and Fire Tender as well as Ambulances were kept ready. The Aircraft however landed safely.
Sources inside Port Blair Airport reported that the passengers were provided food after de-boarding the flight and another flight is being arranged for the passengers for Kolkata. The flight was scheduled to reach Kolkata at 12.25 PM today. All passengers are reportedly safe.
IndiGo staffs in Port Blair were unavailable for a comment in this regard.
Port Blair Airport, which is 3KM plus, meets all requirements of what, an airport should not have. Situated in a bowl, it has hill features in three sides.
The Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Admiral (Retd.) D K Singh, on 14 November 2018, during a press conference had said on the record that the “The runway of Port Blair Airport, which is a little curved, has Joggers’ Park Hill feature at one side which limits landing and take off operations from only one direction, which is a flight safety hazard.”
Considering the safety and carrying capacity aspects, presently Andaman and Nicobar Islands are planning to have a new green field airport in some safe locations of South Andaman for which three sites have been proposed to the Ministry by the local Administration.
