Turkish plane still stuck at Mumbai Airport

Incessant rain hindered removal of the Turkish Airways plane stuck in the mud off Mumbai airport's main runway for the third day on Sunday.

Incessant rain hindered removal of the Turkish Airways plane stuck in the mud off Mumbai airport's main runway for the third day on Sunday.

Though the revised schedule for towing away the aircraft that skidded off the runway on Friday set the target as Sunday midnight, airport officials said the task would not be completed before Monday.

The airport operator, Mumbai International Airport Ltd, blamed bad weather for the delay but aviation experts debunked the argument.

"This operation should not have taken more than half a day. If we take three days to remove an A340 aircraft, what will happen if a jumbo plane such as the A380 gets stuck?" asked captain Mohan Ranganathan, an air safety expert.

Passengers continued to bear the brunt of flight delays due to main runway remaining closed for operations.

Though airport operator claimed that flights were on time, many travellers claimed that they were stuck at the airport for up to two hours.