In a major relief to air passengers who had been inconvenienced by scores of flight cancellations and diversions for the past four days, the main runway of Mumbai International Airport was re-opened for operations late on Friday afternoon.
The 3.66 km-main runway had been shut down shortly before midnight on Monday after a Spicejet aircraft arriving from Jaipur overshot the runway at the city airport.
In the interim period, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL), which manages Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), used the secondary, shorter runway 14/32 (2.99 km-long) that crosses the main runway and cannot handle all types of aircraft
Ninety hours after it was shut down in the wake of Spicejet mishap, MIAL made available the primary runway 09/27 for normal operations from 1647 hrs on Friday.
The resumption of normal operations follows successful recovery of the Spicejet aircraft and its subsequent shifting away from the main runway.
A 60-member team from MIAL’s Airside Operations, Maintenance, Projects and Fire team along with a 100-strong contract staff braving incessant rains worked day round-the-clock for over 90 hours created pathways to facilitate the disabled aircraft to be pulled onto firm ground.
Earlier, an Air India team had lifted the stranded aircraft from the mud using their Disabled Aircraft Recovery Kit (DARK) equipment.
As part of the disabled aircraft recovery exercise, the MIAL team worked 24 X7 to create a pathway of around 130 x 20 metres using stone bed and gravels.
“On top of the stone bed, steel plates and FRP sheets were placed to enable the Poclain equipment and Tow tugs tow the aircraft weighing around 41 Tonnes after it was emptied of all cargo and fuel,” a MIAL spokesperson said.
The lack of nose gear of the disabled aircraft presented a huge challenge to the MIAL team even as they worked through spells of pounding rain.
To mitigate the impact of non-availability of nose gear, a trailer had to be positioned at the front of the aircraft to support it while the aircraft was being pulled from behind using poclain and tow tugs.
“All this while, every care was taken to ensure that the disabled aircraft is not damaged any further and that there are no safety incidents to staff engaged in the aircraft recovery,” the MIAL spokesperson said.
During the 90-hour period when the main runway was closed for normal operations, there were more than 350 flight cancellations and diversions of both domestic and international fights – both incoming and departures. What had added to misery of the air passengers was incessantly heavy rainfall which had led to collection of water on the alternative secondary runway and poor visibility. Meanwhile, MIAL regretted inconvenience caused to air passengers during the last three days and thanked all stakeholders and travellers for their patience.
