By IANS,
Mumbai : A Turkish Airlines plane with 97 passengers and crew on board skidded off the taxiway near the main runway at the Mumbai airport early Friday and got stuck in the soft mud for hours, leading to the main runway being shut down. No one was injured in the incident.
The Turkish Airlines, in a statement, attributed the incident to “excessive rainfall” at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
“About the cause of the incident, the necessary analysis and research is being done in collaboration with the local civil aviation authorities,” a spokesman for the airline said.
“The Turkish Airways flight TK-720 was arriving from Istanbul to Mumbai. Soon after landing at CSIA, it skidded off the rapid exit taxiway N8 and got stuck in the mud there,” the official told IANS.
The Turkish Airbus aircraft was stuck in soft mud off the runway, blocking a section of the main runway, after it skidded and veered off post-landing.
The airport’s main runway was shut for more than 12 hours severely disrupting incoming and outbound air traffic over the country’s busiest airport.
The airline has also requisitioned a new aircraft for the return Mumbai-Istanbul flight (TK-721, which will now be TK-5900), which is scheduled for departure at 1850 hrs.
Earlier in the day, officials of Directorate-General of Civil Aviation examined the aircraft which skidded and veered off the taxiway near the main runway at 4.13 a.m.
All normal flight operations were shifted to the secondary runway since the incident.
With the secondary runway being used, departures suffered an average delay of 30 minutes, while arrivals were being delayed by around 15 minutes, the official said.
Consequent to the incident, the CSIA diverted an incoming flight from Sharjah, G9-0407 to Ahmedabad at 4.14 a.m. It later returned to Mumbai at 07.33 a.m.
Similarly, a cargo aircraft, SQ-7955 on a Chicago-Brussels-Mumbai flight was diverted to Chennai at 5.21 a.m.
SQ-422 Singapore-Mumbai flight was diverted to Bangalore, while two other services, a British Airways flight BA-199 and a cargo flight SX-015 were diverted to Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Air India is helping in the efforts currently underway to remove the stranded aircraft from the position and clear the main runway for normal flight operations.
Work on retrieving the Turkish Airlines aircraft continued in the evening.
A high-ranking airport official told IANS that the work involved removing the cargo in the front belly of the stranded aircraft to reduce the weight on the nose.
“In order to remove the cargo, the cargo hold doors required external power for which a Ground Power Unit is being connected to the disabled aircraft,” the official explained.
After removing the cargo from the cargo hold, the authorities are simultaneously creating a temporary pathway and compacting the surface to enable movement of cargo trolleys.
Later, the cranes and trucks to pull the aircraft would get into operation and retrieve the aircraft.
After it is removed, the aircraft will undergo necessary technical and physical checks before it will be cleared for operations.
“About the cause of the incident, the necessary analysis and research is being done in collaboration with the local civil aviation authorities,” a spokesman for the airline said.