On Saturday, a routine Saudia Cargo flight was disrupted after its windshield cracked midair. The plane landed in Kolkata in East India after declaring an emergency. The Indian airspace remains quite busy, not just with domestic flights but also with several international flights. Most Indian airports are well-equipped to handle emergency situations for larger widebody planes like the Boeing 777F, which landed in Kolkata.
Emergency landing following a cracked windshield
On April 15th, a Boeing 777 freighter aircraft of Saudia Cargo had to make an emergency landing in the east Indian city of Kolkata. According to FlightRadar24.com, the aircraft had taken off from Jeddah at 03:44.
The aircraft performed a successful emergency landing at 12:02 after flying for 5 hours and 49 minutes. A report by ANI says that the plane suffered from a cracked windshield midair, and a full emergency was declared at Kolkata airport in preparation for the landing.
About the aircraft
The aircraft in question is a 7.7-year-old Boeing 777 freighter, which was delivered to Saudia Cargo in September 2015. It bears the registration number HZ-AK72 and has flown for a little over 20,000 hours across 3,783 flight cycles as of January 2023 per ch-aviation. Saudia has four Boeing 777Fs in its fleet.
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Windshield-related incidents
This isn’t the first time a cracked windshield has forced an airliner to make an emergency landing. In July 2022, the crew of an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Shanghai found a minor abrasion on the windshield and decided to turn around instead of heading north to China.
The aircraft, a Boeing 787, had performed a significant portion of the flight and had just crossed Papua New Guinea when the pilots decided to turn around. It flew for about 13 hours just to return to Auckland, which is normally just an hour-long flight away from Christchurch.
In August last year, a Toronto-bound LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 787, too, suffered a cracked windshield, forcing the plane to head back to Warsaw. The flight was approximately 20 nautical miles southwest of Stavanger, Norway, at flight level 380 when the captain decided to divert back.
Fleet damage in Sudan
While Saudia’s 777F received technical help in Kolkata, one of its other planes recently suffered significant damage in Sudan. Reports suggest that recent clashes in the country spread to Khartoum International Airport (KRT), where at least two aircraft were severely damaged or destroyed.
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One of the planes was an Airbus A330-300 operated by Saudia, and the other was a Boeing 737-800 operated by SkyUp Airlines. Saudia confirmed that the plane was exposed to gunfire, and, thankfully, the aircraft’s cabin crew safely arrived at the Saudi Embassy in Sudan. The airline has currently suspended all flights to and from Sudan.
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Source: ANI
