Jammu, Nov 9: Panic griped Jammu Airport after the tyres of a Delhi bound Air India plane  with 145 passengers, including 98 Hajjis, on board  caught fire soon before it was about to take off, sources said.
Air-India IC-822 flight that arrived here from Srinagar to de-board Jammu bound passengers and take on board some passengers from here failed to take off due to leakage in the hydraulic pipe, sources said. They said that the flaks of smoke started to emanate from the tyres of the air craft when it was about to flew to its onward journey to Delhi at 5.15 PM.
Earlier, the flight had landed at Jammu Airport at 4.15 PM.
“As soon as the plane was ready to take-off fire sirens, which were coming to towards the plane drew our attention creating  panic among the passengers on Board”, said a passenger who was being shifted to some hotel with others from the Airport for their night stay.
He said we saw smoke emanating from the tyres when we were being evacuated from the plane to safer place. “It was indeed a very terrifying experience”, he added.
Ghulam Muhammad, a Hajj pilgrim who was worried for his onward journey to Jeddah said that the flight was cancelled from Jammu after bursting of the tyres which were emitting dense flaks of smoke.
However, Airport authorities said that all the passengers were safe and are being shifted to various city hotels for night stay.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 9 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 9 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST