Four tyres of AI plane burst

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 9

At least 137 people, including three crew members, had a narrow escape on Friday afternoon when four tyres of an Air India flight from Delhi burst while landing at the Jammu airport. After the incident, 10 flights were cancelled.

According to sources, the accident occurred as the Air India flight 821 failed to stop at the runway after which the pilot applied emergency brakes and four tyres of the plane burst. This caused the plane to go off the airstrip.

Notably, the Jammu airport has a runway of 6,700 feet only whereas an ideal runway should be 7,500 feet in length. All 134 passengers were safely evacuated using emergency chutes. However, a few passengers reportedly received minor injuries.

The airport was closed after the incident and all 10 flights which were scheduled to take off for different routes were cancelled as the flight 821 was stuck on the runway.

“Four tyres of the aircraft burst on the runway due to which we had to shut the air services from Jammu,” said DK Goutam, Director, Jammu Airport Authority of India.

“There is no damage to the runway and after removal of the aircraft from the runway, it shall be available for operations. Normal flights will resume on Saturday,” he added.

Critical for the country’s defence, the Jammu airport does not operate night flights. The airstrip often gets blocked as carriers’ planes get stuck due to technical reasons for several hours. The IAF has also asked the airlines to install station aircraft removal kits and trained personnel to operate them.

Runway short?  

• The Air India flight from Delhi to Jammu overshot runway.  Its four tyres burst when the pilot applied emergency brakes 
• The Jammu airport has a runway of 6,700 feet only whereas an ideal runway should be 7,500 feet 
• in length
• Normal operations to resume on Saturday after clearing the runway