Air India Express Jeddah–Kozhikode flight diverts to Kochi, Lands under emergency due to tyre damage

Air India(BHARAT) Express flight IX 398, flying from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) to Kozhikode (Kerala), made an emergency landing at the Cochin International Airport (CIAL) on Thursday. The airline diverted to the Kochi airport due to a technical issue, which is related to the landing gear and tyre. According to the airline, there are no reports of injuries to passengers and crew on board. The emergency services were alerted as the Boeing 737-series plane landed safely. The flight with 160 on board had to be diverted to Cochin International Airport, following the landing gear issue.

The flight was at the tail end of its journey into India(BHARAT)n airspace when the plane began facing some issues with the right main landing gear tyres, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) said in a statement. The flight crew informed the air traffic control and requested to divert to the nearest airport with a suitable runway for landing. The runway was prepped and placed under full emergency services. The aircraft landed at around 09:07 AM IST under emergency protocol. After it touched down, further inspection confirmed the tyre burst. The pilots’ emergency landing landed the plane safely, and there are no indications that the landing gear had any other faults.

The Aircraft landed safely and emergency services were alerted

Both the right tyres had burst after touchdown, and it may have led to the plane swaying during landing, it added. CIAL is probing what led to the tyre burst, and whether foreign object debris (FOD) on the Jeddah runway led to the tyre damage. Air India(BHARAT) Express flight IX 398 came from Jeddah and diverted to Cochin as it was experiencing some technical glitch. The Cochin airport authorities have initiated an inquiry to find the exact reason behind the emergency landing.

Modern aircraft have redundancies in design

In the Boeing 737-series wide-body aircraft, the air pressures and other technical glitches are reported by sensors that are fitted to the tyres of the landing gear, which are also monitored in real-time. These sensors report the reading to the avionics systems of the plane and also on the control board of the cockpit. These are part of advanced onboard computer systems, and they have redundancies that reduce the impact of any technical glitch during the flight. In this case, the pilot received an early warning of the technical issue, which prompted the decision to divert to Kochi instead of proceeding to Kozhikode.

International airlines protocols require emergency landing

Guidelines from the international airlines also state that in the case of a suspected landing gear issue during take-off or flight, the aircraft should be diverted to the nearest suitable airport to handle any potential emergency. These guidelines also state that an airport with good-sized runway and firefighting as well as rescue services should be the priority for any emergency landing. In this case, CIAL activated full-fledged emergency services and was prepared for any eventuality as the aircraft touched down. The avionics systems of the aircraft also help it to continue its descent at a controlled speed to optimise the distance covered and fuel consumption. They also help in emergency landings.

Emergency landing succeeded, No reported casualties

In this case, all 160 passengers and the crew on board have been reported to be safe, and disembarked. Passengers on the flight were assured of safe passage to their destination in Kozhikode. They will be provided with all assistance, including transport from CIAL to Kozhikode, to reach the final destination, or reschedule their flight to Kozhikode. Air India(BHARAT) Express said it is working to take all passengers to Kozhikode as soon as possible and that technical experts were on the ground to assess the cause of the emergency landing.

Air India(BHARAT) Express, in a statement, said that all its flights take off and land with the safety of its passengers as their primary consideration. Air India(BHARAT) Express said it will take all steps to ascertain the cause of the emergency landing, along with the technical and commercial audit from aviation safety regulators. However, initial assessment shows no impact on other flight operations as the flight was not on CIAL’s runway for long and it was closed only for a few minutes after the aircraft landed.