The Leh airport was closed on Tuesday after its runway was reportedly blocked by a C-17 Globemaster heavy lift transport aircraft which was facing technical issues.
It led to flight diversions and cancellations. Domestic airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and Vistara operate 11 flights to Leh every day. The IAF operates 11 US made C-17s. Sources said the technical glitch is not serious and the runway is likely to be operational by Wednesday. The C-17 was on a routine air maintenance sortie when it landed at Leh on Tuesday morning.
In a post on Twitter, Vistara said its flight UK601 from Delhi to Leh (DEL-IXL) was returning to Delhi airport due to runway restrictions at Leh and is expected to arrive in Delhi at 10am.
Air India, which operates two daily flights to Leh, diverted one of them to Srinagar and cancelled the second flight after a notice to airmen (NOTAM) was issued due to the breakdown of the Globemaster.
While SpiceJet cancelled two of its three daily flights to/from Leh, IndiGo which operates five daily flights had to cancel all its flights to the airport.
Flightradar24, a Swedish internet-based service that shows real-time aircraft flight tracking information, also said all flight arrivals into the airport have been cancelled.
“All flights have been cancelled for today and airlines will be informed if the runway could be operational as per schedule tomorrow,” an airport official said.
The C-17s, along with IL-76s, C-130Js and AN-32s, play a critical role in supporting the army’s forward deployments in the Ladakh sector. The C-17s played a major role in transporting soldiers and military equipment to Eastern Ladakh after trouble erupted at the Line of Actual Control(LAC)there in May 2020.
During the recent evacuation of Indian nationals from strife torn Sudan a few weeks ago, a C-17 carried out an impressive rescue of 192 people from there with the full mission lasting almost 24 hours with a refuelling stop at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
