Mumbai airport in a jam as SpiceJet aircraft skids off the runway

Brace for more flight cancellations and delays as the primary runway of Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSIA) is unlikely to get full operational before Thursday after a SpiceJet aircraft carrying 167 passengers veered off the runway on late Monday night.

Incessant rain and obstruction caused due to runway overshooting by SpiceJet flight SG 6237 (Jaipur-Mumbai) have already lead to the diversion of 55 flights, while another 200 were cancelled. Further, hundreds of flights were delayed, causing severe inconvenience to the passengers. Also, air cargos including the priority ones such as medicines and urgently needed machine parts were stuck at the airport, causing losses to the exporters.

The flight movements, which is temporarily being carried from a shorter secondary runway, have slowed down the aircraft movements with about 30% lesser efficiency, claim the sources in the air traffic management. This is prompting the airlines to cancel some of their flights and delay a few others. "It will take time as the aircraft has to be lifted from the place where it is stuck near one end of the primary runway," informed a senior airport official. The aircraft's nose has been damaged, said the eyewitnesses.

Although the airport and the airline officials said that there has been no injury either to the passengers on board or its crew, an Indian Revenue Officer (IRS) said that the window glass of his seat was broken by flying stones and soils, which was churned by the fans of the aircraft. Further, the zig-zag motion of the aircraft led to injuries to many of his co-passengers.

The security forces and airport staff said that the delays, cancellations and diversions have led to a chaos at the airport. Media professional Kazim Sheikh, who was there to pick up his son, was one of them. "I waited but the flight did not arrive for several hours. Fed up, I tried inquiring from the airline staff but there was no help or clarity from them. It was much later that I received a phone from my son informing that his flight was diverted to Delhi," said Sheikh.

Meanwhile, with four incidents of runway skidding recorded in the past three days, including one at Mumbai, aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a fresh advisory asking airlines to deploy sufficiently experienced crew in the cockpit during the adverse weather conditions.

The Monday's incident at Mumbai is the third instance of skidding by SpiceJet in as many days. The latest to veer was a flight to Kolkata from Pune on Tuesday. Another flight had overshot the runway on Sunday at Surat airport, after taking off from Bhopal. No injuries were reported in both the flights.