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ShareMumbai: Saturday evening's heavy showers disrupted flight schedules at the Mumbai airport. Four diversions were created as visibility was low.
A Jeddah-Mumbai Saudia flight, SV-744, was landing around 6.30pm in poor visibility conditions -- upto 500 metres only -- at the main runway, when the tyres burst. Following the emergency, airport authorities immediately ordered the runway (0927) to be closed.
The aircraft managed to clear the runway, but got stuck on the taxiway, and could not be towed because of the heavy load. Authorities ordered the 199 passengers to disembark from the plane on the taxiway No 8 from where they were taken in buses to the arrival hall at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Passengers were reported to be stranded for hours in a Jetlite aircraft whichwas to fly to Nagpur.
Bharat Hate, a passenger on the flight, said: "We were unprepared for this and we're stuck without food."
Several incoming flights, including a Cathay Pacific Hong Kong-Mumbai flight and a Kingfisher Thiruvananthapuram-Mumbai flight went around circling over the city till they got landing permission.
With inputs from Pandurang Mhaske
