Air India plane’s tyres burst, 152 safe

Thiruvananthapuram: Around 152 passengers of Male-Thiruvananthapuram Air India flight AI 264 had a close shave when two rear tyres of the Airbus A 320 aircraft burst during landing at Thiruvananthapuram international airport around 12.40 p.m. on Saturday. The incident happened soon after touch-down.

But the trajectory of the  Male-Thiruvananthapuram-Bangalore-Chennai flight    remained unchanged and the pilots could bring the plane to a safe halt. Contingency plans were  initiated by airport officials even before the plane came to a halt. Two specially-equipped fire tenders were rushed to the spot and passengers were escorted out of the runway at 12.50 p.m. by around 50 CISF men and airport officials.

Smitha, one of the passengers, told Deccan Chronicle that there was an unnatural screeching sound from the moment of touch-down but the plane did not shake much. The passengers could see pieces of rubber flying off through windows.

“We were told by the cabin crew that the fire tenders were coming just because there was an unnatural overheating of tyres,” she said.

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