Flight operations were disrupted at the Chennai airport for about 20 minutes when an Air India flight’s disc brakes jammed, when it was between the taxi track and the runway.
Operations resumed soon after the plane was towed away, late Wednesday night.
According to airport sources, the Delhi-bound flight entered the main runway around 9 pm. At that time the multiple disc brakes in the main undercarriage strut of the aircraft got jammed, when the aircraft was aligning for take off. The passengers on the plane will count themselves lucky, as such an occurrence during landing or take off could have had disastrous results.
The pilot immediately stopped the plane and told Air Traffic Control that he would need to be towed off, as movement was nearly impossible.
ATC officials stopped operations on the main runway, and a steady line of planes waiting to take off built up behind the Maharaja’s bird. The runway became operational around 9.20 pm after the aircraft was removed using a tow vehicle.
The snag was fixed and the passengers were sent to Delhi soon after. Air India spokespeople brushed the matter off as minor and said that this snag was one that was constantly watched for and had failsafe mechanisms.
All this has made the case for the opening of the secondary runway much stronger, as AAI attempts to open at least part of it, over the Adyar river.