Shimla: A major tragedy was averted on Monday after the pilot of an Alliance Air flight no. 9I821carrying Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and the state's Director General of Police (DGP) Atul Verma applied emergency brakes to stop the plane at Shimla's Jubbarhatti Airport. All passengers are reported to be safe.
Emergency brakes had to be applied at the pilot was unable to reduce the speed of the Alliance Air's ATR place due to a technical glitch, reported Dainik Bhaskar. The flight operates between Delhi and Shimla and Shimla and Dharamsala. In the evening it returns to Delhi.
Alliance Air Has not yet released any official statement over the incident.
At the time of the incident, there were 44 passengers onboard, including Agnihotri and Verma. Before applying emergency brakes, passengers were informed. Due to the incident, panic gripped the passengers. The flight to Dharamsala has been cancelled.
Mukesh Agnihotri's Statement:
"We reached Shimla via flight this morning. There was some issue with its landing... I don't know the technicalities, but I can tell as a layman that when the plane was about to land, it did not touch the ground where it should have. It could not stop and reached the spot where the runway ended," Agnihotri told media.
"The plane turned at the edge of the runway, and reached a point where it could be stopped... Strong brakes were applied to stop the plane... We had to stay in the plane for another 20-25 minutes," he added.
As per the report, the plane stopped at the edge of the runway. The official director of the Jubbarhatti airport, KP Singh, the complete information about the incident has not been available so far.
"It is being said that there is a technical fault in the plane. We do not have the complete information yet. We will be able to say something only after getting the information. For now, the flight to Dharamshala has been cancelled," Singh said as reported by Dainik Bhaskar.
Landing often becomes difficult for pilots due to weather conditions at the Jubbarhatti Airport. The runway of the airport is also short.
