Operations resume at Mumbai airport’s main runway, disabled Spicejet aircraft removed
Though operations on the main runway commenced on Thursday, officials at the airport said that it would take almost the entire day to return to normalcy.
Operations at Mumbai airport’s main runway 27, that was shut after a Spicejet flight with 183 passengers overshot it, began at around 12.20am Thursday after all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and runway inspections were conducted. The disabled Spicejet aircraft was retrieved at 9.38pm on Wednesday and towed to a hangar. This was done almost 24 hours after it over shot the main runway while landing during the downpour on Tuesday. Though the operations on the main runway commenced on Thursday, officials at the airport said that it would take almost the entire day to return to normalcy.
“There are operational delays at Mumbai airport resulting flight delays upto an hour,” said an airport official.
Read: SpiceJet aircraft overshoots wet runway, gets stuck in mud
Harikrishnan S, who landed from Chennai to Mumbai after the main runway started functioning, said, “My flight landed at 1.34 am, but got a parking bay almost at 3am. We were left waiting inside the coach. The captain was regularly telling us that the ATC has no clue about the bay, hence this is beyond our control. Even after landing at 1.34am, I could step out of the terminal building only around 4am.”
An Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said that the delay in aircrafts was not due to traffic congestion. Over 160 flights were cancelled and 57 flights were diverted to various airports since the SpiceJet aircraft Boeing 737-900 skidded the runway.