“It was only at that one point of time when we heard a loud thud that we panicked. Within no time, we were asked to come out using the emergency exit,” said JP Singh, a Delhi-bound passenger of the same flight. The loud thud was the tyres bursting.  

Recalling the experience, Singh said that all passengers were inside the aircraft by 12.45 pm, and it was scheduled to take off at 1 pm. “But the take-off was delayed by 40 minutes,” he noted. “Once inside the flight, we could sense that something was not right. In between, the pilot announced that we would be shifted to a different aircraft and the flight would be landing at the nearest airport. A little later, we were told that we were returning to Chennai because a spare aircraft was ready there,” the passenger said. Though the crew did not disclose information, other passengers also realised that something was amiss.  

“Luckily, two children in the flight were sleeping,” Singh noted. “The landing was very rough. As soon as the plane came to a halt after drifting away from the runway, the emergency exits were opened. Only after we came out did we see the ambulance and fire engines and could fathom the gravity of the situation,” he said.