Patna: Passengers of Patna-bound Air India flight from New Delhi (AI-407) had a miraculous escape on Saturday evening when the jet plane encountered a strong storm at the time of its landing at Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPIN) airport.
The flight got trapped in the storm that suddenly generated due to local cyclonic pressure when it was preparing for the landing at around 3.30pm. The flight had a total of 122 passengers on board besides the crew. It had taken off from Delhi’s Terminal-3.
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Air India officials said that all passengers were safe and the pilots managed to land the flight safely after the managing the turbulent phase.
“AI 407 got stuck in air turbulence. Because of this the flight started shaking in the mid-air. The plane had suddenly started wavering in the air 20 minutes before landing at Patna airport. Passengers had a scary experience for about ten minutes when the pilots struggled to control the flight during the storm,” said a local Airport Authority of India (AAI) official.
An AAI official said that about half a dozen planes were delayed due to the storm on Saturday. “The crew tried to calm down the passengers who got scared and began shouting in fear. But the pilots of AI 409 applied their intelligence and controlled the situation to manage safe landing of the plane,” said the officer.
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Explaining the trouble, a technical officer said that the aeroplane is trapped in the turbulence when when strong wind, carrying moisture, hits its wings uncontrollably. “It makes the plane move up or go down at quick intervals. There are at least seven types of common turbulence that aircraft have to face in different seasons and weather conditions. Turbulence is also created in aircraft when there is lightning and heavy clouds in the sky.
