Juhu airport primary runway hold-up hits aircraft movement

Scores of arriving flights at Juhu airport were affected for over three hours after a fire engine got stuck on the primary runway on Friday morning.

Though the airport authorities could not confim the number of affected flights, saying most of the flight operations are of non-scheduled operators, the departing ones were made to take off from the secondary runway till the time the primary runway was occupied.

Juhu airport, which is regarded as the oldest civil aviation airport, handles helicopters, including that of certain government companies, such as ONGC, and certain light aircraft. On an average, the airport sees movement of a little over 100 aircraft every year, a majority of which are for ONGC.

Airport sources said the fire engine truck was on its routine daily inspection, which is conducted to check the presence of any foreign body on the runway. "It took about three hours for the fire engine truck to be removed from the runway, affecting scores of arriving aircraft," said a senior airport official.