IAF aircraft overshoots Mumbai airport runway
A team of experts have arrived from Delhi to clear the aircraft from the spot and the incident will be investigated in detail.
Mumbai: An An-32 transport aircraft belonging to the Indian Air Force (IAF) overshot the main runway of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport late on Tuesday night.
The incident occurred after the pilot allegedly decided to abort take off due to technical reasons, which the authorities were informed about later.
A team of experts have arrived from Delhi to clear the aircraft from the spot and the incident will be investigated in detail.
The said aircraft was on its way to the Yelhanka Air Force base at Bengaluru when the incident took place at 11.39 pm.
The preliminary reports said that soon after the incident, standard protocol was followed to ascertain the reason behind the incident and the extent of damage caused.
“While the reason was a snag, the details will be probed further. Nobody was injured in the incident. The aircraft will now be checked and cleared by the technical team that has arrived in Mumbai,” said a defence spokesperson.
Following the incident, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) had to shut the main runway (9X27) and divert flight operations to the secondary runway (14X32). The airport authorities however claimed that flight operations were not affected by the incident.
The defence officials said that while the pilot has claimed a technical issue for having to abort take off, the details of the same will be investigated.
The aircraft will also undergo technical analysis to help establish the snag, the officials said.