Mumbai airport’s runway ops were briefly suspended after the incident.
Mumbai:
A private plane crashed while trying to land amid heavy rain at Mumbai airport on Thursday.
There were eight people – six passengers and two crew – on board. Three people were hospitalised, emergency services said. The extent of their injuries is unknown. No casualties have been reported.
The runway has now been cleared of debris and normal operations have resumed – post safety checks and clearance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation – an airport statement said.
The incident took place near Runway 27, which was slippery because of the rain.
Visibility was reportedly around 700 metres at the time.
The runway was closed briefly, during which Vistara Airlines said five of its flights were diverted and others “are likely to be impacted’. The diverted flights are UK622 (from Varanasi) and UK124 (from Bangkok) and UK933 (from Delhi), UK518 (from Kochi), and UK865 (from Dehradun). The first two have been diverted to Hyderabad and the three latter flights have been sent to Goa’s Mopa Airport.
SpiceJet has advised its passengers “flights might get affected”.
Disturbing CCTV footage of the crash appears to show the plane striking the ground with considerable force and the aircraft body seems to skid along the ground for a bit.
Other visuals from the Mumbai airport showed murky grey skies and the wreckage of the plane on the far side of the runway. Initial visuals showed the wreckage still on fire.
The blaze was put out by emergency services.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the plane was a Learjet 45 – a nine-seater super-light business jet produced by a division of Canada-based Bombardier Aviation – registered to VSR Ventures, which is believed to be a Bengaluru-based real estate development firm.
The plane was inbound from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
