A massive tragedy was averted at Mumbai Airport on Monday amid heavy rain as an Air India flight veered off the runway while landing which caused a significant damage to the aircraft as well as the runway. While the operations were shifted to the airport’s secondary runway to carry out repairs on the damaged part, no injuries were reported to the people on board.
On the rainy morning of Monday, Air India flight AI-2744 from Cochin suffered a hard landing at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) as it overshot the runway. According to official information, the flight landed at 9.27am but experienced a runway excursion, in which it suffered substantial damage on its wings, tyres and the engine’s outer cover. However, the passengers and crew on board did not suffer any injuries and disembarked safely after the aircraft taxied to the gate. The Airbus A320-251N aircraft, registered as VT-TYA of the Vistara fleet, has since been grounded for checks.
The hard landing also damaged the airport’s primary runway 09/27 with minor cracks. The airport had to shut down the runway for repairs and shift all the operations to the secondary runway 14/32. The repair works of the primary runway are underway but the airport authority did not comment on duration of the repairs. “CSMIA’s emergency response teams were immediately activated to manage the runway excursion. All passengers and crew are safe. At CSMIA, safety remains our highest priority,” said the airport’s spokesperson.
Notably, Mumbai Airport had undertaken its annual pre-monsoon runway maintenance on May 8 by halting the operations for six hours. During the maintenance, both the runways were inspected and restored to optimal condition to allow the aircraft to land safely during heavy rains.
While Air India said that the runway excursion was caused due to heavy rain after touchdown, it did not reveal the actual cause of incident. Although the airline did not even comment about the actions taken against the pilots flying the aircraft, sources have said that both the pilots have been de-rostered until the investigation is concluded. The airline simply said, “The safety of passengers and crew remain our top priority.”
Mumbai reported heavy rain on Monday morning causing severe disputation to air transport operations at CSMIA. The airport suffered major problems with long delays and several flights cancelled, according to digital flight tracker Flightradar24. The airport issued a passenger advisory in the morning requesting the passengers to connect with their respective airlines and check the status of their flights before leaving for the airport. It also advised the passengers to leave for the airport earlier than usual in light of the inclement weather and forecast of heavy to very heavy rains.
Similarly, IndiGo, which has the largest operations from CSMIA, also issued a travel advisory stating that several routes towards the airport were seeing slow-moving traffic due to steady downpour. “We understand these conditions can affect your journey. Our teams are ready to support you on the ground and are working to keep operations running as steadily as possible,” the airline’s statement said.
