SIA aircraft develops technical snag at Kolkata airport

A Singapore Airlines aircraft has developed a technical snag while landing at Kolkata airport and got stuck on the main runway, forcing the authorities of the airport to shut down the runway for sometime, officials said today.

The incident happened yesterday night after the Singapore Airlines plane landed at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport here.

An Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said the technical snag was developed due to hydraulic failure and the main runway was closed because of spillage of hydraulic oil there.

The main runway had to be shut down for 1 hour 15 minutes but there was no flight disruption since the secondary runway was available, NSCBIA Director Atul Dixit said.

The aircraft was towed away to a parking bay from the main runway, the spillage was cleared and the runway was reopened for operations, an official said.

"SIA aircraft SQ 516 landed at 10.28 pm on May 5 at the NSCBI Airport and could not vacate runway 19L (main runway) due to hydraulic problem. Immediately alternate runway 19R-01L (secondary runway) was handed over for operation. No impact was there on any other flight as alternate runway was put to use," the airport director said in a statement.

"The runway was handed over back for operation after being vacated and proper cleaning of the hydraulic leakage and inspection of runway 19L-01R," the statement said, adding that the main runway was put into operation again at 11.42 pm.

In a statement, the airline said all passengers of the SQ 516 flight were safe and apologised for the inconveniences.