Rain hampers salvage ops,runway still closed

Less than 30 hours after the plane skidded off the taxiway,the first repercussion was felt when a Spice Jet Flight SC 344 flying from Bangalore made an emergency landing on the secondary runway.

Till Saturday evening,six flights were diverted and flight delays were reported at an hour behind schedule for every departure and arrival.

The Turkish aircraft from Istanbul,TK 720,was carrying 104 passengers and 11 crew members when it skidded off the taxiway adjacent to the main runway on Friday morning. MIAL spokesperson attributed the delay in salvage operation to “slushy ground” near the main runway making the movement of salvage equipment difficult. The first inspection pointed out that the landing gear of the Turkish Airbus 340-300 got stuck in mud; this eventually became the cause for flight disruption and delays up to 50 minutes on every scheduled flight,with the huge Airbus still stuck on the taxiway.

“Around 200 manual labourers have been deputed with 34 engineers from Larsen & Toubro,MIAL & Turkish Airways. Fifty machines are being used for the same. MIAL’s airside operations team and fire crew with crash tenders and Forward Command Post are kept posted to carry out the recovery work smoothly,” said MIAL spokesperson Anindita Sinha,adding,“Since yesterday,50 truckloads of solid materials and twenty truckloads of milling materials are being used to create a temporary hard pavement for the aircraft to be backtracked and moved to the designated site. Air India will recover the disabled aircraft once the solid pavement is ready.

Many truckloads of soil had to be excavated to clear off the slushy ground around the aircraft. The cargo in the aircraft also had to be offloaded leading to constructing a 20/40 ft temporary road for the MDL machine (Main Deck Loader) to manoeuvre and take the cargo out. All these works are being monitored by the DGCA.”

Sinha meanwhile confirmed that flight operations had to be suspended “for a few minutes in four spells due to visibility dropping below minimal on the secondary runway.”

Even as the engineers from Air India and MIAL were working on towing the plane away,the second emergency landing proved again that operating secondary runway during monsoon could prove difficult. While all the other flights either ran late or were diverted Singapore Airlines has decided to cancel all its flights till the main runway is made open,as the company’s policy does not permit usage of secondary runways during monsoon.

The officials had earlier estimated that the main runway would be made open from 10 am on Saturday,but later the MIAL spokesperson revised the deadline to 8 am on Sunday.

“It is too early to state the exact cause for the skid. An enquiry was ordered yesterday and only after the report is out will it be possible to get a clear picture,” said Bharat Bhushan,DG,Civil Aviation.