An Air India Express flight declared an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (TRM) on July 31st following the discovery of a crack on the windshield. The flight took off from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) at around 7:25 am (IST) and was scheduled to continue on to Saudi Arabia.
Shortly after take-off, the flight crew noticed a crack on the windshields of the Boeing 737 and decided to declare an emergency. The pilots decided to return to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (TRM) where the aircraft made a safe landing at around 8:50 am (IST).
The aircraft was operating a cargo-only flight operating under “Vande Bharat Mission” launched by the Government of India. The aircraft was not carrying any passengers Due to the COVID-19 induced restriction, the aircraft wasn’t carrying any passengers and there were only 8 crew members on board at the time of the incident.
This particular aircraft and crew were supposed to carry Indian passengers back from Saudi Arabia, hence the main reason why there were eight crew members on board the aircraft at the time. However, another aircraft and crew were repositioned to undertake this flight.
The Director of Thiruvananthapuram Airport, CV Ravindran stated “All the crew members including the pilots are safe.” The Director of the airport went on to state that had the crack been detected before take-off the aircraft would not have been cleared to take-off.
The Director of Thiruvananthapuram Airport went on to speculate that the crack might have developed during the aircraft’s take-off roll, however, there has been no confirmation or comment on this suggestion from Air India Express.
