Kolkata: A JetLite aircraft with 139 people on board suffered damage to its tail while taking off from Mumbai on Wednesday but landed safely at the NSC Bose airport in Kolkata.
No one was injured in the incident described by the airline as "tail scrape". In a statement, JetLite claimed that "at no time was the safety of the passengers and crew compromised" in the incident.
Airport sources here said the tail of the Kolkata-bound Boeing 737 was damaged while taking off from Mumbai airport. "The plane landed here safely with 135
passengers and four crew members on board," they said.
The sources said the pilot realised that the tail of the aircraft had been damaged during take off but flew it to Kolkata safely. After the passengers disembarked, the aircraft was towed to a separate bay for repairs.
In a statement, JetLite said the aircraft would return to service after inspection.
"Whilst this is not a normal procedure, the occurrence is not uncommon in the industry. The manufacturers have a procedure to deal with this event, which occurs when the extendable tails strut touches the runway during rotation," the airline said.
JetLite operated several flights today to carry passengers of its parent company, Jet Airways, whose operations have been severely affected due to the pilots' stir since Tuesday.
Passengers of a Jet Airways flight agitated in Kolkata on Wednesday evening when their flight was abruptly cancelled after issuing boarding passes.
The Mumbai-bound flight that was scheduled to leave at 1700 hrs from Kolkata was cancelled following which passengers agitated in front of the airline's counters.
Passengers claimed they were informed about the cancellation after the schedule time of departure and were asked to get their tickets refunded.
Jet Airways authorities diverted a JetLite flight for Agartala to Mumbai and the passengers of the Agartala-bound flight were accommodated in an Air India flight, officials said.
Earlier in the day, panic broke out after some people detected a tiffin box lying abandoned in the parking zone opposite the domestic lounge. Airport officials said bomb disposal squad later detected it to be an empty can.
In a separate incident, sparks and smoke inside an Air-India passenger vehicle parked near the domestic lounge of the airport caused panic.
AI officials said the vehicle was under maintenance and flames were soon doused.
Later in the day, Amandeep Singh and Gurpreet Singh Gill, both from Punjab, were arrested here for allegedly carrying fake passports. They had travelled by road to Dhaka and flew to Bangkok where they were allegedly caught with their fake passports. They were sent to Kolkata from Bangkok via Dhaka, officials said.
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