Largest airplane makes emergency landing near Hyderabad

 HYDERABAD: The world's largest airplane Airbus A380 made an emergency landing at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport near here Sunday, an airport official said. The Emirates flight, with 481 passengers on board, was on its way from Bangkok to Dubai. "The aircraft landed with 481 passengers safely at 3.40 a.m.," an airport spokesman said. The pilot cited a technical snag in the aircraft as the reason for making the emergency landing at the airport in Shamshabad, around 20 km from Hyderabad. The aircraft first approached the Chennai airport but did not get clearance for landing as the runway was busy. The pilot then contacted Air Traffic Control at Shamshabad and got the clearance to land. The Emirates was making arrangements to accommodate the passengers on its Hyderabad-Dubai flights. This is the second time that A380 has landed at Hyderabad. During the civil aviation exhibition in October 2008, the aircraft had landed at Begumpet Airport, the old airport in the city. The aircraft, with a seating capacity of 525, came from the company's headquarters in Toulouse, France. It then landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, marking the first landing of the super-jumbo at India's first Code F compliant airport - equipped to receive larger aircraft.