An air Ambulance flying from Nagpur to Hyderabad with 5 people on board made an emergency landing on Thursday after it lost a wheel during the takeoff. All passengers on the flight were safely evacuated. The pilot attempted “belly-landing” without the landing gear at the Mumbai airport. “Showing presence of mind Capt Kesari Singh belly-landed the aircraft on foam carpeting in Mumbai. All onboard are safe. Commendable effort by DGCA, Mumbai Airport & others,” the Civil Aviation Ministry said.
According to the officials at the Mumbai Airport, the non-scheduled aircraft, VT-JIL, was carrying a patient, 2 crew members, a doctor, and a paramedic staff. Soon after take-off, the nose-wheel of the aircraft fell off, forcing a diversion to Mumbai where it landed at 21:09 hrs amid full emergency preparedness.
“As a precautionary method, CSMIA also foamed runway 27 in order to avoid the aircraft catching fire. All passengers were evacuated safely and flights operating in and out of CSMIA remain on schedule,” Mumbai Airport said in a statement.
