Air India jet that grazed Trichy airport wall not overloaded

Chennai: The Dubai-bound Air India Express flight that hit the upper portion of the five feet tall boundary wall of the Trichy airport in Tamil Nadu was not overloaded, an airline official said on Monday.

On Friday morning, the flight with 136 persons on board had a miraculous escape when the aircraft`s wheels scraped the airport`s outer wall during take-off, damaging the wall as well as the plane`s undercarriage.

The aircraft hit the airport`s instrument landing systems (ILS) and then the compound wall. Trichy is about 350 km from here. Aviation experts told IANS that there could be three major reasons for the aircraft not gaining height while crossing the boundary wall including that it could have been overloaded.

An Air India Express official told IANS: "The total permissible carrying capacity of the plane is 79,000 kilos. This includes the weight of the passengers, cargo, fuel and others."

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He said there were 136 persons on the flight (127 passengers including three infants and six crew members). At an average each adult passenger is taken as 70 kg.

"The total cargo weight was about 1,400 kg. The total weight of the plane at the time of take off was about 62,000 kg which is well within the permissible takeoff load," the official said.