UAE | Traffic and Transport
Plane bound to India delayed at Sharjah airport due to tyre defect
A faulty tyre of a 737-800 aircraft resulted in temporary closure of the runway, flight diversions and fuming passengers at the Sharjah International Airport on Tuesday.
- By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter
- Published: 17:29 July 7, 2009
Dubai: A faulty tyre of a 737-800 aircraft resulted in temporary closure of the runway, flight diversions and fuming passengers at the Sharjah International Airport on Tuesday.
Air Indian Express flight LX 536 to Thiruvananthapuram from Sharjah, which was scheduled to take off at 12:10pm on Tuesday afternoon was delayed for over 8 hours when it encountered a tyre burst during take-off. On board were 172 passengers (167 adults and 5 infants), and 6 crew members.
There were no casualties reported.
Mohini Singh a senior official at the airline confirmed the accident and said all that passengers were safely taken to the terminal waiting lounge. She said: “The runway had to be closed temporarily so that the aircraft can be towed back to the bay. We have immediately asked for a new aircraft from India.''
Abdulwahab Mohammad Al Roomi, Director General of Civil Aviation in Sharjah in a statement issued said that the pilot aborted take off and all the passengers were safely evacuated to the terminal building where they were comfortably rested in the airport lounge.
He said that the Airport emergency team responded professionally and precisely as per the emergency plan and crisis management guidelines.
“We have a highly coordinated efforts put in place to handling this accident. The Sharjah International Airport has the ability and capability to handle any incident or accident that might occur. Our capable human resources and modern equipments besides the training and drills they perform to respond to any similar accidents enabled us to react to this incident in a minimum time and maintained the Aerodrome safe for all operations,'' said Abdulwahab Mohammad Al Roomi.
Passengers who were onboard the aircraft said that they panicked upon hearing the screeching sound of the brakes followed by the sound of the tyre burst.
“The aircraft was already rolling and had gathered speed when the incident took place,'' said a passenger who is travelling with her young son. No sooner the aircraft was brought to a halt the Civil Defence arrived. We were asked to disembark after an hour and were taken to the airport lounge where lunch was served,'' she said.
Another angry passenger said that she is travelling to Thiruvananthapuram for an emergency. She said: “All I want was to reach my destination on time. I have something very important to take care off. This is first time for me to travel on an Air India Express flight and what an unfortunate experience it has turned out to be. All the passengers are now calling up their relatives in Thiruvananthapuram and telling them about the mishap. When I rang up my relatives over there they were already at the airport to receive me. Can't the airlines just run a technical check on the aircraft prior take off,'' she said.
The aircraft was expected to take off last night (Tuesday) between 8:30pm and 10pm.
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