Russian aircraft catches fire at Mumbai airport

A Russian cargo aircraft caught fire and blocked a busy taxiway at the Mumbai airport on Saturday. However, airport officials reported no casualties or flights delays. HT reports.

A Russian cargo aircraft caught fire and blocked a busy taxiway at the Mumbai airport on Saturday. However, airport officials reported no casualties or flights delays.

HT Image

At 12:43pm, soon after the cargo carrier arrived in the city, airfield safety officers spotted smoke emerging from its undercarraige.

According to the standard operating procedure fire tenders were summoned and the air traffic control (ATC) was alerted.

The ATC officials asked the pilot to switch off all the engines as fire fighters began their operation.

Airport officials added that the fire was soon put out but the aircraft was stuck on the busy taxiway adjoining the main runway presumably as the tyres were damaged.

As a result, flight operations had to be shifted to the secondary runway for more than three hours.

“Since all arrivals and departures were shifted to the secondary runway, there were no flight delays,” said a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) official.

The plane’s tyres were finally replaced at 3:45pm following which it was towed to a parking bay.