Air India Express flight heading to Kochi catches fire at Bengaluru, 'all passengers safe'

KOCHI: An Air India Express flight from Bengaluru heading to Kochi made an emergency landing at Bengaluru airport late Saturday, immediately after take-off, due to a fire being detected. Air India Express officials said that all passengers on board are safe.
According to eyewitnesses, the pilot and crew could make the emergency landing immediately after detecting the fire.“The flight came from Pune. The flight to had to leave for kochi by 9.40 take off. But it took off only 11 am. I was sitting in the rear side. Immediately after take-off, we felt some jerking. After some moments, I saw a flash of fire from the right cockpit area. It was seen twice. Soon, a woman sitting near me raised alarm by shouting ‘fire ..fire”. Then, the cabin crew rushed to our area. They said there is nothing to be panicky. They also said that everything is under control,” said advocate A Rajasimhan, who boarded the flight from Bengaluru.
“They asked us where we saw the fire. Meanwhile, fire was seen once again. Soon, the cabin crew announced that we are going for emergency landing. Asked all of us not to jump and be seated. It took around five minutes to for crashlanding. Meanwhile, we could see balls of fire from the right side. We all got panicked,” Rajasimhan recalled the frightening moments.
“The flight was crash landed on the runway. It was far away from the airport building. The cabin crew asked us to jump. They opened all exits and helped us to jump. While jumping off, some of us suffered minor injuries like bruise. The cabin crew asked us to run away immediately after jumping. We all ran away. None of us didn’t look back until we reached around 200 metres away from the flight. As soon as the flight landed, a fire engine was seen spraying water in the area where fire was found. Later, more fire engines joined. There were light showers as well. Ambulances were seen rushing into the runway and picking up the elderly persons who were panicked or suffered minor injuries. Then, the buses arrived through the runway to take us all to the airport building,” Rajasimhan, who is practising in Kerala high court said.