By IANS,
Hyderabad : The world’s largest airplane Airbus A380 made an emergency landing at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport near here Sunday due to a technical snag, an airport official said.
The Emirates EK385 flight, with 481 passengers on board, was on its way from Bangkok to Dubai.
“The aircraft landed with 481 passengers safely at 3.40 a.m.,” an airport spokesman told IANS.
The pilot cited a technical snag as the reason for making the emergency landing at the airport in Shamshabad, around 20 km from Hyderabad.
The aircraft first approached the Chennai airport but did not get clearance for landing as the runway was busy. The pilot then contacted Air Traffic Control at Shamshabad and got the clearance to land.
The Emirates was making arrangements to accommodate the passengers on its Hyderabad-Dubai flights, including a special flight.
An official said that out of 481 passengers, 80 left for Dubai by regular Emirates flight EK527 Hyderabad-Dubai at 10.20 a.m.
Some passengers will be sent by a special flight at 11.20 a.m. and the remaining by the regular Hyderabad-Dubai flight in the evening.
Airbus engineers from the company’s headquarters in Toulouse, France, are rushing to Hyderabad to attend to the technical snag. This is the second time that A380 has landed at Hyderabad.
During the civil aviation exhibition in October 2008, the aircraft had landed at Begumpet Airport, the old airport in the city.
The aircraft, with a seating capacity of 525, then landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, marking the first landing of the super-jumbo at India’s first Code F compliant airport — equipped to receive larger aircraft.