Alliance Air flight makes emergency landing at Delhi airport due to low oil pressure in engine

NEW DELHI: An Alliance Air flight with 40 passengers and four crew members flying between Pragyaraj and New Delhi had an emergency landing at Indira Gandhi

NEW DELHI: An Alliance Air flight with 40 passengers and four crew members flying between Pragyaraj and New Delhi had an emergency landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Friday afternoon as one of its engines became in-operational mid air, nearing the airport.

The flight landed, and all passengers were disembarked safely. IGIA declared an emergency for nearly 30 minutes on one of its runways in Terminal 1. The plane has been grounded, and the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), is probing the incident.

Flight 91698, an ATR 72-600 aircraft equipped with twin turboprop engines, took off from Prayagraj at 1.39 pm and landed at IGIA at 2.13 pm, according to flight tracking platform FlightAware.

A Delhi airport source said, “One of the engines of the flight became non-operational, and the crew requested our ATC for an emergency landing. We declared an emergency on one of our runways (Runway 4) of Terminal 1 for nearly 30 minutes, thereby leaving the runway vacant for this specific flight to land. The emergency was lifted after it landed safely.”

The government-owned Alliance Air, in a statement, billed it as a priority landing. “During the inbound approach to Delhi, the Pilot-in-Command requested a priority landing due to low oil pressure on the LH (left-hand) side engine. No emergency was declared by the flight crew. There were 40 passengers and 4 crew members on board this flight. The flight landed safely, and all passengers deplaned smoothly,” said Alliance Air. An investigation is being carried out by the team of engineers.

The airline alerted the aviation regulator. The aircraft has been grounded, and the DGCA is probing the incident, said a source.