Delhi-bound AI flight makes emergency landing at Kolkata after fuel leak

A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Bangkok made an emergency landing at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose international airport in Kolkata on Saturday night following a suspected fuel leakage in the right wing. The plane was carrying 150 passengers.

Kolkata airport director Atul Dikshit said flight AI-335 made an emergency landing around 11.05 PM following “some technical glitches”.

“The emergency landing was handled quite well and all passengers were safe,” Dikshit said.

An Air India spokesperson who did not want to be named, claimed it was more of a “precautionary landing” rather than an “emergency landing” after the pilot suspected some technical glitches.

“The flight took off from Bangkok at 9.30pm and made the precautionary landing at Kolkata as technical glitches were suspected after the plane entered Indian airspace. We arranged another aircraft for the passengers.

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It took off for Delhi at 2.30am. The technical glitches in AI-335 have been been taken care of. It took off for Mumbai around 9am on Sunday,” the AI spokesman said.

A Kolkata airport official, who did not wish to be named, said that after landing, AI-335 was stopped on the taxiway and taken to the terminal. “Fortunately all 150 passengers were safe,” he said.

This is the second emergency landing in a month at the Kolkata airport. On December 11, 2018, a Jaipur-Kolkata IndiGo flight made an emergency landing when smoke was detected in the cockpit.

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