Kochi: A Kozhikode-bound flight from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia had to make an emergency landing at Nedumbassery here on Friday due to a technical glitch.
Carrying 197 passengers, SpiceJet's SG-036 touched down in Kochi after a fault in the hydraulic system was identified, an airport spokesperson said.
An emergency was declared in the airport here at 6:29 pm after the SpiceJet-SG 036 flight, which was scheduled to land at Kozhikode airport, got diverted to Kochi, he said.
"The B737-8 MAX aircraft landed safely at 19:19 hours on the runway after an emergency landing situation," he added.
There were 188 adults and three children, besides two pilots and four crew members, onboard the flight.
CIAL Managing Director S Suhas informed that the runway was inspected after the flight landed safely and the emergency was withdrawn subsequently.
"...the airport had fully geared up for facing the extreme emergency situation. The alerting structure was activated in full. As the aircraft landed safely, the runway was handed over for normal operations after due inspection," Suhas said in a statement.
The passengers were transferred to the terminal, airport authorities said.
In a statement, a SpiceJet spokesperson said that after take-off from Jeddah, Air Traffic Controller (ATC) informed the pilots that tyre pieces were found on the runway.
"During further flight, a caution light illuminated. The pilots decided to divert to Cochin where low passes were carried out to verify whether the landing gear lever was down and locked. Post confirmation from the ATC of landing gear extension, the aircraft safely landed at Cochin and passengers were deboarded normally," the spokesperson said.
A senior DGCA official said a detailed inspection is in progress.
SpiceJet officials informed that the passengers will travel to Kozhikode on a subsequent flight arriving from Dubai.
(With PTI inputs)
