Air India Express flight hits electric pole on landing at Vijayawada Airport

An Air India Express flight hit an electric pole while landing at Vijayawada International Airport in Gannavaram on Saturday.

As per an official statement, all passengers on the flight are safe.

The airline authorities have ordered an investigation.

Airport director, G Madhusudan Rao told : "An Air India flight coming from Doha met with a minor accident at Vijayawada International Airport in Gannavaram today. All passengers are safe. When the flight was about to land, its wing hit a light pole. The light pole broke and fell down. The flight wing is slightly damaged. This incident happened at 16.54 IST."

"There were 64 passengers in the flight excluding the crew. Nobody is injured in the incident and all are safe," Rao said.

Following landing, as the flight was taxiing on the runway towards bay number 5, it hit the electrical pole.

"AI Express flight IX-1676 that arrived from Doha at Vijayawada Airport at 16.50 hrs, today, while flight was proceeding from runway to Bay No. 5 the captain followed leading margin (yellow) line instead of central yellow line. As a result the flight's right wing hit the high mask lights pole and the pole fell down. The flight's right wing got minor damage. Passengers and crew all are safe. Air India staff and technical personnel are attending," sources said.

The flight from Doha was headed to Vijaywada and then to Trichy. Out of the 64 passengers, 19 passengers were headed to Vijaywada and the rest are now headed to Trichy. The airline authorities have ordered an investigation," the airport director Rao said.

Ramareddy, one of the passengers who had boarded from Doha said he felt a small jerk during landing. "There was a small jerk and we passengers felt nothing except that jerk. The pilot was alert. Nothing happened to anybody," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )