31 flights diverted, 14 cancelled as Indigo flight's tyre burst upon landing at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport
HYDERABAD: A massive chaos at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday night after an Indigo flight from Tirupati suffered a tyre burst upon its landing continued on Thursday. As many as 31 flights, including 10 international flights, were diverted and 14 domestic flights were cancelled on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Indigo flight 6E 7117 suffered multiple tyre bursts at 10:04 pm while landing at Rajiv
Gandhi International Airport. All the four main gear wheels of the aircraft burst on landing, rendering the aircraft immobile. This impacted airport operations until 2.22 pm on Thursday, said a spokesperson for GHIAL (GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.)
“The cancellation flights were mostly due to late arrivals from the diverted airport stations, and Crew Flight Duty Limitations (FDTL) issues,” said the spokesperson.
“Indigo team, supported by Hyderabad airport officials, changed two of the four tyres as per airline Disabled Aircraft Recovery Plan, after which the aircraft was safely towed away and operations resumed at 2.22 pm Thursday,” the spokesperson added.
The Airport Fire Rescue team acted promptly and ensured that the sparking caused due to multiple tyre burst did not go out of control and all the passengers were deplaned without injury. In light of the nature of the incident, the aircraft recovery was managed in the shortest possible time through combined efforts of all airport stakeholders. Also, the airport officials ensured that terminal facilities were provided to the stranded passengers.
Social media scare
Meanwhile, frequent flyers took to internet to vent their ire at the airline plagued with flight cancellations. “Time to bring laws to compensate the passengers” tweeted Vijay Nair, one of the passengers whose flight was cancelled on Thursday. It may be mentioned here that earlier this month, DGCA had grounded 11 Air Bus A320 neo aircraft for technical reasons. For Indigo that resulted in 84 flight cancellations.