 "Image via Shutterstock")
The incident took place after the Lufthansa aircraft from Munich carrying 163 passengers touched down at Mumbai airport around 10.45pm. Four tyres of the aircraft’s main landing gear were damaged. The damage to two tyres was severe and its rim was exposed. The aircraft was unable to vacate the runway, resulting in its closure from Friday night. Till Saturday evening efforts were on to clear the stranded plane from the runway.
A Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said failure of aircraft’s anti skid system, which prevents the wheels from getting locked when brake is applied on landing, may have resulted in the tyre burst.
A failure can result in aircraft skidding and tyre bursts. The DGCA has also informed the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau about the incident but no announcement has been made regarding its probe.
The incident resulted in flight delays throughout Friday night and Saturday and a diversion of a Cathay Pacific cargo aircraft to Hyderabad.
Lufthansa issued a statement, saying: “Four tyres of the aircraft of flight LH764 from Munich to Mumbai had been damaged. The plane could not be moved from runway for the time being. There were 163 passengers on board the Airbus A330. They had to leave the plane via stairs, positioned on the runway. The plane will be removed from the runway after the assembly of four new tyres. Flight LH765 of May 14 had to be cancelled and 223 passengers were affected. Lufthansa is trying to rebook them on other flights.”
“The DCGA is in charge of investigating the incident, and we have to wait for the outcome. We certainly won’t jump into speculation but cooperate very closely with the local authorities,” Lufthansa added.
A Singapore Airlines-operated Airbus A380 flight and two ultra long haul flights to Newark operated by Air India and United were impacted the most by to the incident. These flights require longer take-off run on the runway, which is not available on the secondary runway. Till Saturday evening, the three flights had not taken off.
A few other flights to Europe had to off-load cargo in order to operate from the secondary runway. Emirates did not operate its Airbus A380 aircraft early on Saturday, opting for a Boeing 777 plane because of closure of the main runway.
Singapore Airlines said, “Flight SQ423, an Airbus A380 bound for Singapore from Mumbai on May 13, is delayed in Mumbai due to a temporary runway closure.
