Mumbai: The main runway of the Mumbai International Airport will remain closed till 2 am on Saturday, following the accident on Friday morning when a Turkish plane skidded off while landing.
The runway was supposed to be reopened for traffic by 8 pm on Friday, but towing away of the aircraft is taking longer than expected, authorities said.
A Turkish Airlines plane - TK 970, from Istanbul with 104 passengers and crew on board skidded off the taxiway at the international airport here, hitting flight operations.
Passengers and crew were safe.
The landing gear of Airbus 340-300 aircraft got stuck in mud, by the main runway.
Engineers from Air India and Mumbai International Airport Ltd were working on towing away the plane till late evening. The plane required defuelling which got over by 6:20 pm. First load of cargo was offloaded at about same time, while
front belly cargo was offloaded completely an hour later.
Rear-end cargo is being emptied, authorities said. Once cargo is removed, aircraft will be towed away from the site to clear the area for flight operations on the main runway. The runway is now expected to be cleared for traffic by 2 am.
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