Luftansa flight from Munich suffers tyre burst in Mumbai

Lufthansa flight LH764 from Munich stuck at the airport in Mumbai on Saturday after four of its tyres burst on landing Friday night. (Photo: PTI)

A Lufthansa aircraft, carrying 163 passengers from Munich in Germany to Mumbai, experienced a tyre burst at the main runway at around 10.45 pm on Friday. While no injury was reported and a tragedy was averted, the aircraft blocked the main runway on Saturday and flights landed and took off from the secondary runway, causing delays in all flight timings.

At around 8 pm on Saturday, the aircraft was towed from the primary runway. Officials of the Mumbai International Airport Limited and Air Traffic Control (ATC) inspected the primary runway, to give it a green signal to restart operations. The primary runway could be used at around 9 pm on Saturday after almost 22 hours of the incident. Commenting on the delays, a top airport official said, “Most of the flights were delayed for an average of 30 to 40 minutes.”

Civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered a probe into the incident. The official spokesperson of Lufthansa Airlines said, “We certainly won’t join in the speculation, but will cooperate very closely with the local authorities.”

According to ATC sources, the Lufthansa aircraft landed on the main runway 09-27 at 10.53 pm. At the time, an ATC official, a crew member of Air Arabia and another of Air India noticed smoke coming out from the landing gear (four tyres) of the aircraft. Immediately, a full emergency situation was declared at the airport and fire fighters were deployed. The pilot of the aircraft was informed, who switched off the engine. Later, passengers were de-boarded from the front gate using stairs. According to airport sources, the tyres were completely destroyed and the iron beneath it was visible.

According to officials of Lufthansa Airlines, 163 passengers were on board the Airbus A330 D-AIKR. The plane was removed from the runway after the assembly of four new tyres.

After the incident, the secondary runway 14-32 was opened as the aircraft was stuck on the main runway. As the secondary runway was in operation, several flights were delayed and were forced to go around, said sources. Four international flights from the city were cancelled —Mumbai-Singapore of Singapore Airlines, Mumbai-Newark of Air India, Mumbai-Munich of Lufthansa Airlines, Mumbai-Newark of United Airlines. The cargo aircraft of Cathay Pacific was diverted to Hyderabad.

A total of 427 passengers and 25 crew of Singapore Airlines’ Mumbai-Singapore flight, and 265 passengers and 15 crew members of the Mumbai-Newark United Airlines flight UA49 were given accommodation by their respective airlines in Mumbai.

Ashok Pawar, a resident of Chembur, said, “I was going to Singapore by Singapore Airlines for a vacation. I finished my immigration process on Friday night on time, but then came to know that the flight was cancelled.”

Explaining the cause for delays, an official from the Mumbai airport told The Asian Age that the secondary runway is of short length so aircraft movement takes more time in comparison to the primary runway. Also, wide body aircraft cannot taxi on the secondary runway so they were cancelled. Interestingly, Emirates operated a B777-300 ER as Emirates flight EK 500 from Dubai to Mumbai instead of their regular Airbus 380 as the secondary runway could not accommodate a wide-body aircraft on it.