Chennai: It was a close call for 180 people on an Air India Express flight.
The flight from Singapore was to land at Chennai at 10.15 am. However, even after descending as low as 200 feet from ground level, the pilots decided to pull up and try again.
The flight landed safely on the second attempt, after circling the airport for around 30 minutes.
According to Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials, the aborted landing was due to an ‘unstable approach’ at the St Thomas Mount end of the runway.
According to experts, the plane needs to come down at the right speed, right angle, and in line with the runway for safe landing.
In this case, the descent was too steep, and there was a sudden change in wind speed, which made it unsafe to land.
This is not the first time that there have been landing problems at Chennai airport. Last October, an Indigo flight arriving from Jaipur had to fly off just before landing because of similar issues. In March this year, a flight from Mumbai damaged its tail while landing.
