Saudi-bound Air India Express flight makes emergency landing

A Saudi-bound flight made an emergency landing in India on Friday after a suspected failure in a key aircraft system.

The Air India Express flight was on route from the south Asian city of Kozhikode to the eastern Saudi Arabian province of Dammam, the Times of India reported on Friday.

The flight was carrying 182 passengers, according to the TOI report. Since the aircraft was carrying enough fuel for the near-five-hour trip to Dammam, it was too heavy to attempt the emergency landing.

To reduce weight, the Air Indian Express flight IX385 reportedly dumped fuel over the Arabian Sea before making a safe landing in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala.

The airport, operated by the Adani Group, declared full emergency and had all rescue vehicles on standby, including fire engines, ambulances from nearby hospitals and police.

However, the plane landed safely.

An alternate flight was arranged to ferry the passengers to Dammam on Friday evening.

Some reports claimed that the aircraft experienced a tail strike – usually caused by pilot error during takeoff, where the back-end of the jet hits the runway.