All the 154 people on board an IndiGo flight from Mumbai were evacuated today using emergency slides during which 28 passenger suffered injuries after the pilot of the Airbus plane was alerted about a dense smoke emanating from its landing gear when it landed here.
As the Airbus A-320 aircraft operating Flight 6E-176 from Mumbai and carrying 148 passengers and six crew members landed at the IGI Airport around 1530 hours, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) observed "dense smoke" coming out of the left-side lower portion and alerted the pilots, airport sources said.
The aircraft was moved to the taxiway where all passengers were evacuated through emergency slide-chutes, an airline spokesperson said, adding that "some of them suffered minor injuries during evacuation".
While one of the passengers suffered suspected fracture, the others had minor bruises, airport sources said, adding in all 28 people were injured.
Aviation regulator DGCA and the airline have begun probing the incident, as preliminary reports said the smoke was caused by heavy friction on the left brake assembly of the aircraft's landing gear. The investigation would continue over the next few days, the sources said.
This is the second incident involving an IndiGo aircraft in the recent past.
On March 8, an Indigo plane from Delhi with 182 people on board had caught fire after landing at Kathmandu airport but no one was hurt. Then too, the fire was spotted on the plane's right brake assembly.
Maintaining that there was "no fire and this was not an emergency or priority landing", the spokesperson said the aircraft made "a normal landing on runway 27 at 1535 hours".
"As soon as the Captain got the information about the dense smoke observed from the ATC tower, he immediately ordered the crew to evacuate all passengers in the interest of safety. The evacuation was done on taxi way after safely landing the aircraft," he said.
"We confirm that all passengers and crew members are safe and have been taken to the terminal building. Some of the passengers were given medical attention and taken care of.... They have all left for their homes already," he said.
The airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said all assistance were provided to the passengers and the airline.
"DIAL's emergency services responded promptly to the needs of IndiGo flight 6E-176. All assistance was provided to the passengers and the airline," a DIAL Spokesperson said in a statement.
