An Indigo flight carrying 140 passengers veered off the runway while landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) Saturday evening and damaged runway lights,making it out of use for nearly two hours. The pilot or crew members did not report the incident and the damage came to light only during a routine inspection by Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) staff. The flight was operating from Chandigarh to Mumbai. All the passengers and crew on board are safe. At 6.42 pm,during a routine inspection of runway 27/09 five edge lights were seen broken and tyre marks were observed on the runway shoulder almost up to the edge of the pavement. No aircraft had reported this incident, an MIAL spokesperson said. The Air Traffic Control then informed airport authorities that an IndiGo flight 6E 433 had landed at 6.35 pm. On physical inspection,officials found mud on port side of the outer wheel of the flight,the spokesperson said,adding that an aircraft maintenance engineer had also changed a wheel without informing apron control. The runway was shut between 6.42 pm and 8.32 pm to clear area and repair the lights. The airline said in a statement that while landing at the Mumbai airport there was a sudden gust of wind and that is suspected to have damaged some runway lights. Officials from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have inspected the aircraft and cleared it for further operations,the airline said,adding that the safety department of IndiGo and the DGCA will probe the matter further.
