NDTV Correspondent, Updated: September 04, 2011 00:34 IST
Mumbai: Passengers at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) continue to face a harrowing experience as the main runway of the airport remained closed for a second day on Saturday. It is expected to be operational again at 8 am on Sunday.
The runway was shut down on Friday after a Turkish Airways plane skidded off the rapid exit taxiway after landing early in the morning and got stuck in some mud just a few feet away. Airport authorities have so far been unable to move the plane; intermittent rain is hampering their efforts.
Since Friday, the airport has been using its secondary runway. The average delay on arrivals and departures is 45 and 55 minutes respectively. Six flights were also diverted on Saturday.
The CSIA authorities on Saturday had to suspend all operations on the secondary runway as well for a few minutes, four times during the day, on account of poor visibility.
The CSIA also grappled with an emergency landing of a Spicejet Bangalore-Mumbai flight with 137 passengers on board. There were no casualties in the incident.
Airport officials said that continuous downpour over Mumbai and surroundings further hampered the retrieval operations launched on Friday evening.
The Turkish Airlines aircraft, an Airbus 340, had 104 people on board including 11 crew members. No injuries were reported. The airline issued a statement that said its plane skidded off the runway after landing "as a result of excessive rainfall."
The flight from Istanbul to Mumbai landed at 4.13 am. The plane exited the runway onto the recently-refurbished taxiway N8 that leads towards the terminal. Suddenly, the plane skidded and its nose wheel and main landing gear hit the mud.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which supervises flight safety, has said this is a serious incident, and has begun a formal inquiry to determine what went wrong. The fact that the plane first skidded off the taxiway and then veered so close to the busy runway is a double-whammy as far as safety concerns go.
Source: http://www.ndtv.com
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