Mumbai airport runway shut for 28 min after Bangkok aircraft makes emergency landing

Operations at Mumbai airport were hit on Thursday after a cargo aircraft arrived earlier than scheduled because of an emergency and got stalled on the runway for nearly 30 minutes in the afternoon.

The aircraft, a Boeing 747, operated by global logistics company UPS, had to make an emergency landing because of hydraulic failure. The aircraft was coming from Bangkok and landed after its pilot alerted the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) about technical problems with the aircraft.

The aircraft landed at 12.11pm and was towed away from the runway at 12.39pm. “Flight operations were stalled for 28 minutes. One of its tyres was deflated. Though oil spillage occurred and sparks were observed after landing on the left engine due to excessive fuel burn, there was no fire. Thus, clearing it delayed the runway vacating time,” said a senior airport official.

Another airport official said that there was problem with the main landing gear, which required towing the aircraft from the runway. “The city airport has cross runways, which means that only one runway can be used at a given time. As both main and secondary runways were not available for twenty eight minutes, an initial delay of thirty minutes in flight movements was faced, which had reduced to nearly five minutes till 5pm.”

During unavailability of the runways, two flights (Vistara and Indigo airline’s Delhi- Mumbai UK 995 and 6E 223 respectively) had to be diverted to Ahmedabad.

A ‘full emergency’ was declared by ATC after the pilot declared hydraulic failure thirty minutes prior to landing. Fire tenders, ambulances, and a medical team along with airport officials rushed to the runway, as per standard operating procedure (SOP). There are unconfirmed reports that oil from the aircraft engine spilled on the runway.

“The aircraft landed at Mumbai airport and remained on the main runway abeam taxiway N8, as one of its tyre had deflated,” a spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. said.