Mangoes ground AI flight

Passengers stranded in Bucharest Airport

In a bizarre incident, an Air India flight on Saturday was not only forced to make an emergency landing but also  grounded after a fire alarm went off apparently due to fumes emanating from its cargo hold containing mangoes.

The AI-127 Delhi-Frankfurt-Chicago flight, which took off from New Delhi at 2 am on Saturday, had to make an emergency landing in Bucharest in Romania at 11:30 am (IST) as the pilots noticed a fire alarm. The aircraft was flying to Frankfurt en route to Chicago.

The Boeing 747, carrying 190 passengers apart from the crew, was thoroughly checked by the airport engineers and it was noticed that a section of the cargo area was emitting fumes.

“It was found that the cargo contained mangoes and the reason for the fumes was perhaps the chemicals used to ripen the mangoes,”  AI officials told Deccan Herald in Delhi. "No trace of fire was detected during an inspection of the plane," an airport spokesman told AFP in Bucharest. 

The fire alarm also caused inconvenience to the passengers and the airline. Air India has no ground engineers at Bucharest airport.

Besides, the airport authorities do not give permission for an aircraft, which made emergency landing, to take off unless the airline engineers certify it fit to fly or “airworthy.”

“We are making arrangements for our engineers to fly from either Paris or Frankfurt to Bucharest. Also, there is need for a fresh set of crew to be sent. So the aircraft is grounded at present,” sources said, denying that passengers went without food on the aircraft.

Air India officials claimed that the airline had made arrangements for the passengers to fly to Chicago. But passengers had another story to tell. Some of them, who contacted Deccan Herald, claimed that the airline told them that they would be accommodated in hotels but had to pay transit visa fee. The passengers protested. The Indian embassy officials had to intervene to resolve the issue so that passengers were not burdened.

Praveen Damodaran and Kavitha Nagaraj, two passengers from Bangalore,  said they were stranded at the airport without any information or assistance from the Air India staff. The couple and their two children, five-year-old Abhilasha and infant Kashma, told their relatives in Bangalore over the phone that they had no information on when they would leave the Bucharest airport.

In response, an Air India spokesman in Mumbai said:  “In the given situation, Air India with the help of local assistance (whatever available then) did endeavour to take care of passengers needs in terms of food and beverage to tide over the situation. It was a long-haul flight and there was no problem for food or beverages.”

The flight will leave tomorrow (Sunday) morning (local time).

Emergency landing


* Aircraft makes an emergency landing at Bucharest airport in Romania after a fire alarm goes off.

* Alarm sets off after smoke emanates from cargo hold, containing mangoes.

* AI to fly engineers from Paris or Frankfurt to Bucharest

* Passengers stranded at Bucharest airport are clueless on when the aircraft will take off.

* Chemicals used to ripen mangoes have properties to emit smoke.