Agencies/New Delhi/ Islamabad

A passenger from an Air India flight that made an emergency landing in Pakistan is hugged by her father at the New Delhi International airport yesterday
An Air India flight bound for New Delhi with 130 people on board made an emergency landing in southern Pakistan yesterday due to technical problems, aviation officials said.
The Airbus A320 from Abu Dhabi made the unscheduled stop at Nawabshah airport, around 230km northeast of the port city of Karachi, Pakistan Civil Aviation spokesman Pervez George said in Islamabad.
After the emergency landing, the Indian captain was offered use of the airport lounges for the flight’s 122 passengers and eight crew, an official said, but he refused.
“We had offered full co-operation to them but the Airbus captain did not allow the passengers to disembark and requested just for drinking water,” Sultan Hasan, spokesman for the state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), said.
Another plane brought engineers from India to fix the fault and took the passengers to New Delhi, he said.
India lauded the “good co-operation” from the Pakistani authorities for ensuring the safe return of the passengers.
Flight AI-940, which departed Abu Dhabi at 0015 hours yesterday after originating from Bahrain, made the landing at Nawabshah airport after the pilot noticed a hydraulic failure warning.
The passengers looked visibly relieved and happy to be back home.
“This sort of thing can happen with any airline and this does not mean that I will not be travelling with AI again. It was one of the scariest experiences but I am relieved to be home,” U Radhakrishnan, who had gone to meet his daughter in Abu Dhabi, said at Delhi airport.
“The crew was very good and we were treated very nicely. I will surely be traveling with Air India again,” said 19-year-old Akshay Purohit.
The passengers were received by Ashok Tomar, special secretary in India’s external affairs ministry. Tomar lauded the “good co-operation” from the Pakistani authorities.
“I just want to say that the flight with the passengers has just landed as also the original flight AI-940 with the baggage is on its way back and should be landing soon,” he said.
“The passengers got good co-operation from the Pakistani authorities and we are happy this situation has ended and the passengers are back.
“The Pakistani authorities went out of their way and were very helpful and co-operative in providing emergency landing to the Air India flight, providing speedy clearances for the relief plane, providing water and refreshments to the stranded passengers and offering transit visa to passengers, if needed,” official sources in New Delhi said.
“The passengers were very well treated by the Pakistani authorities. They had to get the equipment necessary for getting the problem sorted out, so the engineers had to go and put things together. Pakistani authorities were very positive and helpful,” the sources said.
Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai was in touch with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to ensure that the passengers returned safely home. The Indian high commission also ensured that passengers were given meals and were looked after, said official sources.
According to an Air India official, the passengers were well taken care of, with senior officials contacting an airport restaurant at Nawabshah for providing meals and other basic provisions to the passengers. A team of technical experts from Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority also helped out their Indian counterparts.
“Since Nawabshah airport is a non-scheduled civilian airport, passengers without a visa are not allowed to disembark. But we are providing meals and basic provisions through a local restaurant at Nawabshah,” the official said.
According to the official, a team of Air India engineers and technicians was also sent to Nawabshah on the relief aircraft and it would stay back to investigate the possible causes for the hydraulic failure alert, repair it and bring the aircraft back.
“The pilot suspected a hydraulic failure in the aircraft after a warning beeper. So the pilot requested permission for emergency landing. The engineers will determine the exact glitch repair the same. We expect the aircraft to return soon,” the official said.
“The aircraft was flying over Pakistan air space when the pilot saw a warning light and sought permission to land at the nearest airport which was Nawabshah,” said the Air India official.