Mumbai Airport Runway Shut Down for 4 Days
The heavy rains in Mumbai caused a SpiceJet aircraft to go off the runway while landing. This aircraft has blocked the main runway leading to the cancellation of several flights.
Due to the heavy rains in Mumbai over the last weekend, a SpiceJet plane that had run of the runway at around midnight on Monday, 1st July. The plane is still lying at the end of the main runway at Mumbai Airport. This caused nearly 300 flights to be cancelled at the airport. Airport authorities are saying that they hope to clear the plane and runway by Friday 5th July.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has sent the Airline four showcase notices. Which means they need to explain some of the findings the ground staff found on the plane after it landed. They said that they found “a number of deficiencies” during an unplanned check of the aeroplane. SpiceJet will have to pay Rs 1.1 crore to remove the aircraft. The DGCA have said the plane was at a very high speed during touchdown and the weather had nothing to do with the plane going off the runway.
The DGCA also have said that the pilots were supposed to have additional training but the SpiceJet training department never completed their training. They did not have the skills to land in heavy rains and floods. Mumbai Air Traffic Control said that the runway would not be available till Friday midnight. This is a total of 4 days. This is the first time the runway will remain shut for so long since 2005, when an Air Sahara plane also went off the runway. The Air Sahara plane took only four days to remove. A Turkish Airline Flight took went off the runway in 2011, it was cleared within three days.
This was SpiceJets 5th landing related incident in three days. There were similar incidents happening all over the country with one in Surat and another in Kolkata.
