Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Damaged aircraft removed from runway without emptying fuel


KOCHI: The Gulf Air flight which skidded off runway at Kochi airport on Monday morning was removed on Tuesday morning from the slush where it remained stuck after the mishap, paving the way for making the runway completely operational. Though in such situations, the aircraft's fuel is emptied before hauling, this was not possible in Cochin and the plane was carefully tugged, with ropes sheilded with soft pads, in order to avoid any possible fire. The plane's electrical circuits were also disconnected to ensure safety.

However, five flights which were to land at airport in the early hours of Tuesday were diverted and they include two Ethihad flights and one flight each of Air Arabia, Jet Air and Gulf Air.

Two of them were diverted to Coimbatore, one was diverted to Chennai and the other two to Thiruvananthapuram.

The runway will be ready for the landing of wide-bodies aircraft before 8 am, the airport sources told TOI. "We need a little bit of cleaning up of the runway after the removal of the aircraft," the sources said.

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