Air India's Sharjah-Kochi flight lands in Mumbai

Passengers of an Air India flight AI 934 from Sharjah to Kochi went through a few tense moments last evening after the flight was believed to have suffered a major technical snag.

The initial estimate was that the flight had developed some sort of hydraulic failure. The flight was diverted to Mumbai and the airport was placed on full alert as preparations were made for an emergency landing.

However, the request for an emergency landing was withdrawn later and the pilot managed to land the Airbus A320 aircraft normally.

Flight controls and landing gears are powered by hydraulics, but flights these days usually have two or three back-up systems.

According to a report by DNA, an Indian newspaper, the emergency landing was declared at the Mumbai airport at 17:22 but was withdrawn in 20 minutes.

The flight managed to reach Kochi by 19:00.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident members of a pilots association in India are protesting against Air India’s decision to change the flight operating procedure for the A320 aircraft, accusing the airline of introducing the change without a detailed study or due procedure.

Indian media reports quoting sources within the airline say the new change would mean lesser expenditure on fuel, durability of aircraft engines and reduced noise pollution.

But members of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association have written to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to force the airline to reverse the decision.

According to them such alternations of the certification process would constitute a major violation of the original certification of airworthiness and result in serious flight safety violation.

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