AI plane plunges after hitting airpocket, probe ordered

PTI

New Delhi, 31 May 2010: Days after the Mangalore air crash, an Air India Express plane with 112 passengers and six crew members on board plunged a few thousand feet due to an airpocket while flying from Dubai to Pune, but no one was hurt.

The incident occurred on May 26, four days after the major air disaster at Mangalore in which 158 people were killed.

Both the pilots of the flight IX-212 have been taken off duty pending investigations, which have been launched by Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, an airline spokesperson said.

While the spokesperson maintained the plane had "lost some height", airport sources said the incident occurred when the Boeing 737-800 was running on auto-pilot mode as it hit the airpocket and dived over 5,000 feet when it was flying over Muscat.

Maintaining that no one was hurt in the incident, the spokesperson said the commander and the co-pilot have been derostered pending investigations and added that the actual cause of the incident would be known only after the probe.