Air India flight flies through brick wall, continues journey
An Air India flight flew through a brick wall over the weekend and, surprisingly, got halfway through its journey before it decided to turn back.
The Boeing 737 was travelling out of Tiruchirappalli International Airport in Tamil Nadu, India, when it hit the top of a 1.5-meter wall and took out a small landing guide tower shortly after midnight, according to Fairfax.
The pilot of the flight, which was bound for Dubai, apparently saw no reason why they shouldn’t continue on despite the godawful sound and jolt that must have come with the collision.
“The pilot said nothing was wrong with the plane as the systems were functioning normally. But we found some parts of the plane, like an antenna, on the ground,” said an airport director.
The flight was about halfway to its destination when it turned around as a “precautionary measure”.
The plane landed in Mumbai about four hours after takeoff and all 130 passengers were routed onto other flights.
Upon inspecting the damage, the crew found the bottom of the plane’s fuselage had been torn open and the underside of the plane was covered with scrapes, dings and exposed framework.
NDTV anchor Vishnu Som posted on Twitter that it was a “miracle it flew and a miracle that there were no casualties.”
This Air India Express Boeing 737-800 which rammed into the boundary wall and clipped runway ILS instrumentation would have been hurtling down the runway at about 250 kms … Its a miracle it flew and a miracle that there were no casualties. pic.twitter.com/NPy5VQDPVA
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) October 12, 2018
“We will take all that’s required to put safety on top of aviation agenda,” The country’s minister of commerce, industry and civil aviation, Suresh Prabhu, said.
“Growth can’t be at the expense of safety.”
The airline said both the pilot and the co-pilot have been taken off the roster, pending review.
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