A regular Alliance Air flight (9I821) from Delhi to Shimla became a nightmare flight on Monday morning when the plane experienced a technical glitch in the braking system while landing at Shimla’s Jubbarhatti Airport. The plane had 44 passengers on board, including Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and Director General of Police (DGP) Dr. Atul Verma.

Luckily, the crew and pilot were able to safely land the aircraft, and there were no injuries to the passengers. The incident created distrust among people with respect to flight safety, especially among flights that were subjected to hard landing conditions.

Technical Failure: Braking System Collapse

The aircraft’s braking system failed while it was landing, officials at Shimla Airport said. The pilot realized something went amiss and employed emergency measures to bring the plane to land safely.

The plane was immediately grounded, and Alliance Air’s technical team inspected the aircraft to determine why it malfunctioned. Failure is said to be preliminary, likely because of hydraulic or mechanical wear failure.

As Shimla is a place with a mountainous terrain and the runway is short, landing procedures have to be special and thus technical failure, appears even more risky.

Passenger Responses: Safety Concerns Hiked

A couple of VIP travelers also took this flight, the prominent ones being Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri and DGP Atul Verma. 

Deputy CM Agnihotri spoke to the media after the plane landed safely. He also called for stricter regulations of aircraft maintenance so that the occurrence of such an incident cannot be repeated, particularly in terrain sensitive airports like Shimla.

There had been panic moments in the passengers of the flight when they experienced sudden unfamiliar movement of the plane while landing. Composure of the crew, however, helped everyone.

Though disaster was averted through the timely intervention of the pilot and crew, the crash does emphasize the importance of strict safety measures on board. With the issue of landing in steeper regions such as Shimla, the maximum maintenance and regulatory standards must be adhered to.

Regulators are at this point more concerned about why the failure occurred and how such cases should be prevented in the future and ensure the importance of aviation reliability and passenger safety.