Miss Alone
Prime VIP
About 128 passengers on board an Air India flight from Ahmedabad had a minor scare on Tuesday morning after one of its wheels suddenly flattened and sat on a taxiway.
Airport officials said that luckily the tyre got deflated after the aircraft had vacated the main airstrip. Passengers and crew were safe, said officials.
“A similar tyre burst on the runway could have held up peak hour traffic and had a cascading effect on the entire day’s schedule,” said an senior air traffic control official requesting anonymity.
A tow-tractor attached to the plane took it to another parking bay and airlines were looking for a spare aircraft to operate its return flight to Ahmedabad, officials added. The incident took place at 8:55 pm a minute after flight no AI 614’s scheduled arrival.
The AI spokesperson did not offer comment till the time of publishing.
The incident could have seriously hampered operations as the airport would shut its main airstrip for four hours for repair works from noon. While this partially closure would take place intermittently throughout the week, the main maintenance will start from October 30.
Both airstrips will be shut for give hours on Mondays and Thursdays, for a total of nine days.
