A Dubai-bound Air India Express aircraft was forced to return to Mumbai after an alleged hydraulic failure on Sunday. The flight IX 247 with 177 passengers on board made an emergency landing and returned safely to Mumbai around 3pm.

The passengers took off for Dubai around seven hours later in the same aircraft after engineers attended to the aircraft and resolved the issue.

The flight, which was scheduled to take off at 1.10 pm on Sunday, took off at 1.30 pm after a delay of around 20 minutes.

Mumbai airport officials said the pilot-in-command alerted the Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) of the situation around 15 minutes after taking off, when the flight was 157.42 km west of Mumbai.

Airport officials said the pilot gave an emergency message to the ATC and requested permission to return to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Pvt Ltd (CSMIA).

An Air India Express spokesperson said, “The flight that took off at 1.30 pm with 177 passengers and six cabin crew on board had to return to Mumbai after an hour of take off as the captain noticed a technical issue. After landing safely, the engineers attended the flight and rectified the aircraft. Passengers were taken care of and were served refreshments. Passengers took off around 8pm in the same aircraft.”

Mumbai airport officials said a full emergency was declared at the city airport at 2.28 pm.

As a result, fire tenders, ambulances, medical team along with airport officials rushed and were positioned near the runway as a standard operating procedure (SOP). The flight touched down safely at 2.58 pm on the airport’s secondary runway.

“The aircraft, Boeing B737-800, requested emergency landing with hydraulic failure as only one system was then operational. After this, runway 09/27 was made available by Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL)’s apron control team and the aircraft landed safely,” explained a senior airport official.

“The runway was made available within a few minutes of the pilot’s request. However, the aircraft landed at 2.58 pm as it took some time to prepare for the emergency landing,” the official added.

First Published: Jan 07, 2019 11:11 IST