Daijiworld Media Network - Kalaburagi (SP)

Kalaburagi, Aug 17: Even as memories of an aircraft having met with a gory accident when landing at Kozhikode airport a few days back are fresh in the minds of the people, three flights faced proles in landing at two airports on Sunday, August 16.

Both Alliance Air and Star Air flights hovered over the Kalaburagi airport for about 40 minutes but could not touch down. The Alliance Air had brought 53 passengers from Bengaluru. At last, the flight was diverted to Hyderabad. It began its journey after the weather cleared, and returned here from Hyderbad at 4.20 pm.

Star Air flight was late because of climatic conditions. After taking a few rounds in the air, the flight with 40 passengers returned to Bengaluru.

Indigo flight with 47 passengers including MP, Ananth Kumar Hegde, hovered over the Hbballi airport for about 90 minutes because of the adverse climate and finalliy landed at 10.24 am. The flight had left Bengaluru at 7.50 am and was about to land at 8.55 am when heavy rain and cloudy climate averted it from doing so. The flight was not getting signal from the air traffic control tower because of climatic conditions and the pilot took rounds over the airport at a distance of five km. The options of going to Goa or Mangaluru were also considered. As the aircraft had enough fuel, the flight could stay in the air for long before coming down safely.

Director of Hubballi airport, Pramodkumar Thackeray, said that during the landing in case of adverse climate, the decision mostly rests on the pilots to land or not.