Scores of passengers had a miraculous escape when a mishap occured on the Srinagar airport with a wing of the landing Air-Sahara flight hitting the nose of a parked Air India flight that had brought in Haj pilgrims from Jeddah Sunday afternoon.
A senior airport officer described the mishap an error of the pilot and of the directing ground staff. He said the right wing of the Air-Sahara Delhi-Srinagar flight was damaged when it hit the nose of the Air India flight while turning for a halt on the Srinagar airport late Sunday afternoon.
The Air Sahara flight has now been grounded at the Srinagar airport and engineers were trying to repair the damaged wing.
"The right wing of the Air-Sahara flight suddenly hit the nose of the IA plane and it shook the passengers inside," said the official.
Srinagar airport had a very busy day Sunday as four Haj flghts carrying pilgrims from Jeddah besides half a dozen flights landed in Srinagar Sunday. All Srinagar-bound flights were cancelled Saturday because of bad weather and snowfall.
However all the outgoing flights, including the IA flight whose nose was hit, took off as per schedule from Srinagar Sunday afternoon.