Aircraft skids off runway at Kochi, major disaster averted

A Gulf Air flight from Bahrain with 137 passengers on board skid off the runway at the Kochi International airport in the wee hours, on Monday, injuring seven passengers.

The accident occurred at when the flight was landing at the airport, caused minor injuries to seven passengers.

V.J.Kurien, managing director of Cochin International Airport Limited [CIAL], told Business Standard that the accident took place around 3.55 am and the runway will be fully operational by around 11 pm. By noon, most domestic and international flights, except for a few large aircraft, were allowed to touch down. “Immediately after the incident, the runway was closed and flights were diverted to other nearby destinations or canceled,” said airport director A C K Nair.

One passenger from Palakkad, Said Mohammed, 47, was injured and had been admitted to a nearby hospital while the others were discharged after first aid. The passengers had suffered injuries because they had jumped out of the aircraft through the emergency exit.

The mishap occurred due to heavy rainfall and strong winds that had brought down the visibility on the runway. The aircraft skid off the runway and traveled around 50 meters through sludgebefore coming to a halt.

According to Kurien the visibility of the runway was badly affected due to heavy downpour when the plane was around 300 meters above the ground level. So the pilots had no other option but to land. The pilots said bad weather was the reason for the mishap. The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) E K Bharat Bhushan has ordered an enquiry into the incident. Kochi-bound flights were either diverted to Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore airports. While an Etihad flight from Kuwait, two Jet Airways flights from Sharjah and Muscat have been diverted to Thiruvananthapuram, an Oman-Kochi flight has been sent to Bangalore.

An AI Express plane was flown from Mumbai to Kochi on Monday afternoon carrying men and material to remove the damaged aircraft. It was a non scheduled flight.

Air India is the only airline which has the necessary equipment and expertise to remove damaged aircraft and following a request from Kochi airport authorities AI flew a Boeing 737 with the equipment. "In this procedure an inflatable air bag is placed under the wings of the aircraft and once the wings get lifted they are pulled by a trolley,” an AI official said.