Narrow escape for passengers as plane overshoots Shirdi runway

A disaster was averted when an Alliance Air plane with around 70 passengers overshot the runway while landing at the Shirdi airport here on Monday evening but the pilots managed to bring it to a halt, official sources said.

No injuries were reported among the passengers on board the ATR aircraft.

The incident happened around 5.30 p.m. when the Mumbai-Shirdi flight of Alliance Air, the regional carrier of Air India, was scheduled to land at the recently commissioned airport in the pilgrim centre.

As the flight approached for landing, it overshot the runway by at least 50 metres before grinding to a halt even as emergency services were pressed into action.

All the passengers were evacuated safely from the aircraft. Arrangements were on to tow the plane back to the runway for checks and repairs.

The incident is being probed by both Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, an official said.

Last year, on October 1, President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Shirdi airport as part of the year-long centenary celebrations of Shri Saibaba Samadhi, in honour of the 20th century saint Saibaba.

The airport, constructed at a cost of around Rs 350 crore by the Maharashtra Airport Development Corp, has a 2,500-metre runway capable of handling only single narrow-bodied aircraft.

--IANS

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