Visakhapatnam:
The 125 passengers on board an Indigo flight from Bhubaneshwar to Visakhapatnam had a narrow escape on Wednesday after the windshield of its cockpit cracked upon being hit by ice particles during mid-air turbulence.
Airport officials said that all passengers on board are safe after the flight landed here.
The airline later said in a release that the flight 6E-512 from Bhubaneswar to Vizag "departed from Bhubaneswar at 13:33 pm with 125 passengers. Twenty minutes before arrival at Vizag, Operations Control received a message from the captain (of the flight) that the outer layer of the windshield has cracked. The captain followed the precautionary procedures and the aircraft landed safely at Vizag at 14:35 pm."
The aircraft was thereafter grounded at Vizag airport.
The airline added that a relief aircraft from Hyderabad to Vizag was operated to take the stranded passengers to their destination. The relief flight landed at Vizag at 18:07 pm and departed for Chennai at 18:32 pm with 174 passengers.
Some of the passengers of flight 6E-512 told PTI that after taking off from Bhubaneswar in the afternoon, the flight had experienced mid-air turbulence.
Indigo said that the windshield had cracked "due to severe weather and suspected hail".