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Seconds after taking off from Kolkata airport, the airplane motors suddenly powered down. A few seconds later they came back just to power down again. It was as if the pilot could not keep them going at full throttle! We heard strange noises and felt vibrations, as if something was loose or open. Then the plane started to loose altitude, which is not something it should be doing during take-off! I feared that the engines were not working properly and mentally pictured us crashing into the ground!

Nepal, India and Arabia

Odv
2006-04-15 18:46:13

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Seconds after taking off from Kolkata airport, the airplane motors suddenly powered down. A few seconds later they came back just to power down again. It was as if the pilot could not keep them going at full throttle! We heard strange noises and felt vibrations, as if something was loose or open. Then the plane started to loose altitude, which is not something it should be doing during take-off! I feared that the engines were not working properly and mentally pictured us crashing into the ground!

After a few minutes the pilot addressed us over the intercom, he made a short pause that seemed to last minutes, before telling us that one of the wheels did not retract. I felt immediate relief as it explained the noise, vibrations and also explained why the airplane was flying lower than it should. He finished his announcement by stating that we had to return to Kolkata because the wheel would cause too much turbulence and increase fuel consumption.

This was going to cost us at least a few hours more in Kolkata, something I was definitely not looking forward to as I just wanted to get to Nepal. Fortunately a few minutes after turning the plane back towards Kolkata, the pilot announced that he had succeeded to pull in the wheels and that we were going to fly to Kathmandu anyway. During the flight I kept on hoping that the wheels would also come out when we needed to land.

They did, and besides the firetruck waiting for us at Kathmandu airport the rest of the flight was uneventful. We still managed to enjoy the executive class seats which we had taken because economy class was full. Al least if we had crashed we would have crashed in style!
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