NEW DELHE: In a bizarre incident involving an Indian Airlines airerafton Oct.31, a wheel fell off from midair in full view of an lent passenger without the pilot and crew knowing about it
Had it not been for passenger D.K. Srivastava, an executive with Manganese Ore India Lid, who informed the pilot and the crew immediately after noticing the freak incident, a major disaster was a certainly, Providentially, the aircraft landed in Delhi airport amid full emergency alert without any injury or serious damage to the aircraft.
It all happened on Sunday evening at Nagpur when Indian Airlines 1C470 carrying 126 passengers took off for Delhi. Hardly had the aircraft become airborne when Srivastava, silting at the rear left seat, notice a wheel falling off.
An unnerved Srivastava com posed himself to immediately go to the pilot Capt. Chabliani. According to Srivastava, when he told of the horrendous incident, the Captain initially refused to believe him. Apparently he checked his flight parameters on the computer screen and dismissed Srivastava with a disdainful no It was only when Srivastava stuck to his point that further investigations were made and, indeed, it was confirmed that one of the two left rear wheels had fallen off before the undercarriage retracted after takeoff.
Eyewitnesses said the lone rear wheel on the left burst soon after touch down.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 5, 1993
