Sharjah-bound flight makes emergency landing in Kerala

An Air India Express flight from Tiruchirappali, a city in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, heading towards Sharjah, a city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), made an emergency landing on Monday.

An Air India Express flight 613 with 154 people made an emergency landing in Thiruvananthapuram airport because of technical reasons. 

According to PTI, the airport authority declared a full emergency at Thiruvananthapuram airport because of flight 613. The flight landed safely in the city around noon.

Local media outlets reported that an Air India spokesperson said that the landing was a precautionary landing. 

The Air India Express spokesperson said, “Flight IX613, operating between Tiruchirappalli and Sharjah on 31 July 2023, made a precautionary landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. The decision was taken because of a technical snag post-takeoff.”

Recently, a large number of passengers were stranded at Mumbai and Dubai airports for more than 15 hours because of technical issues in the airline. Air India aircraft that were to operate flights AI983 (Mumbai-Dubai) and AI984 (Dubai-Mumbai) on Saturday night developed a technical snag, leading to the delay.

The flights were originally scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft. However, the flights operated after a delay of more than 15 hours using an Airbus A321 aircraft. 

Last week, an Air India Express flight from Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the Indian state of Kerala, to Dubai, a city in the UAE, returned midway because of technical issues.

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Meanwhile, Tata Group owned Air India finalised a deal with US-based engine manufacturer CFM International for engines for 400 aircraft. 

Vistara airline, an Indian full-service airline, based in Gurugram, also announced plans to merge its staff into Air India Ltd. They aim to take on market leader IndiGo.

Vistara Chief Executive Officer Vinod Kannan said, “The process of integration of the staff has started.”