Etihad plane hits runway lights amid thick fog

Dubai: Owing to thick fog in the early hours of Monday morning, an Etihad Airways plane hit runway lights at the Abu Dhabi International airport, leading to the closure of the airport's South Runway L31.

The incident, involving Flight EY45 departing to Dublin, at 3:19 am on Monday morning, led to damaging of some side lightings of the runway. Confirming the same, an Etihad spokesperson said in a statement: "A runway at Abu Dhabi airport was closed early on the morning of January 30 following an incident involving an A330-200 aircraft operating Etihad Airways flight EY045 from Abu Dhabi to Dublin. The combination of fog and the runway closure resulted in a significant number of delays, diversions and flight cancellations at the airport throughout the day."

It added that nobody was injured in the incident, which caused some damage to the aircraft's tyres.

Ahmad Al Haddabi, Chief Operating Officer at ADAC (Abu Dhabi Airports Company), said in a statement that the airport's North Runway carried out the airport flight's departure and arrivals and the South Runway resumed normal operation after the completion of safety check.

"Several departing flights were delayed at Abu Dhabi International Airport as of 3:20 am and a further 20 arriving flights were diverted to nearby airports within the UAE and GCC," he said, adding that after the incident, the airport operated on low visibility operations, which was lifted at 9:10am. "The airport then resumed normal operations with expected delays in some flight departures."

Etihad Airways, meanwhile, stated it is doing everything possible to assist those affected and get them to their final destination as soon as possible.