The passengers and crew members of an Air India plane flying from Delhi to Vijayawada reportedly sustained injuries after the aircraft suffered damage due to a thunderstorm on Saturday.
Media reports suggest that the incident occurred on September 17, but the pilot as well as the crew members on board violated protocol by failing to report the incident to the airline's flight safety department on time.
The flight, AI-467, departed from Delhi at 7.28 pm. It was scheduled to land at 9.40 pm in Vijayawada.
Some passengers also suffered minor bruises, sources said. Air India has started an investigation into the incident.
Photos of the aftermath of the incident from on board the plan, showed food trays scattered all over the floor and a cabin crew member receiving first aid.
Air India's AI-467 Delhi to Vijayawada flight suffered damages and crew suffered injuries when the aircraft faced severe thunderstorm. No passengers were reported injured in the incident. Air India has started the investigation in this matter. pic.twitter.com/gCs6NF2XTR
— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2019
The turbulence due to the thunderstorm was such, that a commode also came off its base.
"The aircraft must have dropped sharply and suddenly. In this season, it's common to experience turbulence on most routes. But this was an extreme case. The passengers must have been traumatised," a source told the Times of India.
Further details and a statement from Air India are awaited.
According to a Mathrubhumi report, on Friday, an Air India Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram flight carrying 172 passengers also suffered some minor damages due to turbulence but landed safely. No passenger or crew members were injured.
In June this year, the IX384 Air India Express aircraft travelling from Dubai to Mangaluru veered off the taxiway and onto the grass at the Mangalore International Airport before skidding to a halt on a patch of mud and grass. However, all 183 passengers and six crew members aboard the plane were safe.
In January, an Air India flight AI-541 from Tirupati to New Delhi via Hyderabad suffered damages after “foreign objects” from the runway hit the underside and wings of the flight during take-off.
However, the flight safely landed in Hyderabad, where officials observed that while the underside just suffered scratches, the wings had suffered damage. Following the alert from Hyderabad, authorities closed down the runway at Tirupati airport temporarily for three hours for maintenance, at the time