A big accident was avoided at Mumbai Airport on Friday morning, when AI plane’s engine caught fire with 213 passengers on board.

An emergency landing was declared by the airport authorities while it was taxiing for take-off.

According to the reports, one of the passenger on the board noticed some sparks coming out of the engine. The plane was bound for Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

All the passengers on-board were safely evacuated. Four fire extinguishers were rushed to the spot along with other equipment and personnel.

An Air India flight from Mumbai-Bangalore (IC 109) made an emergency landing at Mumbai airport due to hydraulic failure on Wednesday morning.

However, all the 87 passengers on board were safe. The flight was delayed for about 35 minutes.

Talking to media, an Air India spokesperson said, “Flight no IC-109 took-off at 0937 hours but soon returned to Mumbai after a technical snag was reported in the aircraft.”

Country’s national carrier, Air India, had asked its top management and senior officials to voluntarily forego their salary and productivity-linked incentives for July to help the cash-strapped and crisis-ridden airline.

A statement issued by the state-owned carrier said: “As a gesture to ease the liquidity crunch faced by the airline, Mr Jadhav has requested all executives in the level of General Managers and above to voluntarily forego salary and Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) payable in the month of July 2009.”