Congress MP K C Venugopal on Monday alleged that Air India is "lying" about a potential safety lapse at the Chennai airport runway, while the Delhi-bound AI 2455 flight had to take a diversion due to bad weather conditions. He also called for a "fair enquiry" by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) into the incident.
"That was a lie, Air India is lying. It was announced by captain only," Venugopal told ANI. Earlier on Monday, Vengugopal said that while he, along with multiple other MPs, experienced a "harrowing journey" after AI 2455 flight from Trivandrum to Delhi experienced turbulence, leading to a precautionary landing in Chennai.
He said in a post on X that while a landing was attempted for the first time, another aircraft was already present at the same spot, and the pilot's "quick decision" to pull up at the last second saving the passengers. Responding to the claims, Air India said that no aircraft was present on the runway during that time, that standard protocols were followed, and diversion being done as a precautionary measures and their pilots are well trained to handle such situations.
"I have already tweet it yesterday. Exactly there should be an inquiry on that issue. Unfortunate incident happened yesterday, this was announced by the pilot only that there was another aircraft in the runway when we are going to land. This was by the pilot itself," Venugopal told ANI. "I spoke to the DGCA also let them have a proper enquiry," he added. Talking about the incident in a post on X, Venugopal wrote that the flight had "come frighteningly close to tragedy," while carrying the MPs from Trivandrum for the Parliament in Delhi. -- ANI
