KARACHI / NAWABSHAH, July 9: A New Delhi-bound Indian passenger plane from Abu Dhabi with 130 people on board made an emergency landing in Nawabshah after developing fault in its hydraulic system early Monday morning.

The landing at 3.27am was followed by tension-filled 13 hours when the captain of the aircraft declined to accept the hospitality offered by the authorities and refused to allow the 122 passengers and 8 crew members to move to the lounge and only wanted water to be served to them.

The passengers remained in the seats with little legroom for about 13 hours and their ordeal ended when another plane arrived from India at 1.27pm and took them to Delhi.

The Air India flight developed the fault when the aircraft was in Pakistan’s airspace between Panjgur and Rahimyar Khan. What prompted the captain to refuse to accept the airport authorities’ offer to take the passengers to the lounge and serve breakfast and, if necessary, lunch, could not be ascertained despite claims being made by governments of both the countries about improvement in bilateral relations.

The aircraft’s pilot Sunil had earlier informed Pakistani aviation authorities about the emergency and requested permission to land at the nearest airport. He was advised to land in Nawabshah which is designated as Karachi’s alternative airport.

The airport, over 200 kilometres northeast of Karachi, is mostly used for domestic flights and has limited security arrangements. Therefore, law-enforcement personnel, particularly Rangers, were immediately deputed there to keep the public away from the easily accessible premises. The airport was cordoned off and unauthorised people were not allowed to go near the airport.

As a gesture of goodwill, the authorities offered food, drinks, and all possible facilities to the unscheduled guests, but the pilot politely turned down the offer and said they had everything they needed on board and would prefer to wait in the aircraft. Later, the pilot asked for water and bottled water was immediately provided.

The rescue aircraft from India, an Air India Airbus 320, with eight engineers and technicians landed at 1.27pm and after some time passengers and crew members were shifted to it and it flew back to New Delhi at around 3pm. The engineers and technicians stayed back to repair the faulty aircraft which took off at 4.05pm after the fault had been removed.

With normal relations between the neighbouring countries, the guests should not have suffered the ordeal of sitting so long in the plane and could have relaxed on ground, probably also walked around if they wanted to.