On Wednesday, May 1, a Vistara flight from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi returned minutes after takeoff and made an emergency landing after being caught in a hailstorm and sustaining damage, according to an official. All 169 passengers and personnel on board are safe.
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The hailstorm that hit various regions of Odisha this afternoon caused a crack in the aircraft’s windscreen.
“The New Delhi-bound Vistara flight landed back at the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here barely 10 minutes after taking off,” the officials said.
“A windshield has been damaged, while no harm was caused to the passengers,” BPIA Director Prasanna Pradhan said.
Meanwhile, the airline in a statement said, “We confirm that Vistara flight UK788 encountered adverse weather soon after take-off, resulting in a crack in its windshield and minor damage to the radome.” Radome is the ‘nose’ of an aircraft where the airborne weather radar is hidden.
“The aircraft is undergoing necessary checks before resuming operations. In the meanwhile, an alternate aircraft has been arranged to complete the journey, which will depart shortly,” the statement read.
It said the airline is making efforts to minimize inconvenience to passengers by taking measures such as offering refreshments and meals.
About a couple of weeks ago, two of its Vistara flights, from Trivandrum (TRV) in Kerala, Bhubaneswar (BBI) in Odisha, and Mumbai in Maharashtra, that were originally scheduled to reach New Delhi were also diverted due to bad weather around Delhi Airport. While the flights from Trivandrum and Bhuvaneswar were diverted to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, the flight from Mumbai was diverted to Amritsar (ATQ) in Punjab. Read more here
On April 30, aviation regulator DGCA suspended a senior Vistara official for lapses in the conversion training of pilots, according to an agency report. Vikram Mohan Dayal, Vice President of Training at the full-service carrier, has been removed from his post, PTI reported citing sources. Read more here
With agency inputs
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