An Air India Express flight with 183 passengers on board veered off the main taxiway after landing at the Mangaluru International Airport on Sunday, June 30. All the passengers and crew member safely de-boarded the aircraft, the airlines said in a statement.
The incident occurred at around 5:40 pm after the Dubai-Mangaluru flight landed at the airport and was proceeding towards the terminal. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, came to a halt on a grassy patch in the airport.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been informed about the incident. The runway was closed as officials were probing the case, but the operations have resumed now.
Although a formal investigation will be conducted to ascertain the cause of the incident, tailwind and wet runway with inadequate braking action were cited as the reasons behind it.
A Spicejet Bhopal-Surat flight also veered off the runway on Sunday evening after landing. All passengers and crew on board were safe.
The Mangaluru airport is notorious for its table-top runway as the location is on a hilltop, preventing extension of the runway. In May 2010, an Air India Express plane from Dubai overshot the runway and plunged down a gorge at the end of the runway, killing 158 people.
