Hyderabad: Fuel oozing from the right propeller of Trujet flight 2T 201 from Hyderabad to Chennai forced the plane to return, after alert passengers raised an alarm. All 42 passengers were reported safe.
The flight took off at 8 am and 15 minutes after it was airborne, passengers sitting on the right side noticed white liquid coming out of the propeller below the wing, forming white droplets on the windows. They alerted the crew members after which the pilot came out to check.
The safety signal was switched on, and an announcement made for flight diversion back to Hyderabad. (It was supposed to land in Chennai at 9.30 am.)
A senior pilot of an airline anonymously explained that the white liquid as fuel, which was possibly the result of a pipe leakage.
This would mean the leakage went unnoticed by the ground staff during the fuelling. While in flight, atmospheric pressure would have sped up the leakage.
The flight landed at the airport’s end where fire staff and emergency personnel evacuated the passengers to the airport terminal.
The passengers, who circulated videos of the leakage, were not informed of the reasons behind the developments. “Till 11 am there was no information from the airline,” Srinivas Behra, a Chennai manufacturing unit’s corporate affairs manager, said. “The passengers noisily demanded to know at the counter whether they would be flown. The airline refunded a few tickets and accommodated a few others, but only after a hue and cry was raised.”
True-jet’s Attanur Prasad said: “All our flights are operational.”
