IndiGo flight tyres burst in Hyderabad, services hit in KIA

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad was shut for several hours on Wednesday night after multiple tyres of a Tirupati-Hyderabad IndiGo flight exploded.

The authorities diverted several incoming flights and suspended many departures.

The airport was opened for regular operations during the early hours of Thursday after the aircraft was towed away.

The cascading effect hit normal operations at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru on Wednesday night as 20 flights were affected

Ten flights were diverted from Hyderabad to Bengaluru, according to a Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) spokesperson.

Four flights that took off to Hyderabad from KIA returned. As many as four flights were diverted from Bengaluru to Chennai, one to Mumbai and another to Coimbatore.

The BIAL officials maintained that the operations were normalised by early Thursday morning. Different airlines had kept their passengers posted on the rescheduled operations.

Early on Thursday, there were many others awaiting their turn to board the earliest flight to Hyderabad from KIA. They had to spend the entire night at KIA before operations resumed at Hyderabad.

Hrish Thota, whose flight from Mumbai could not land at KIA, said. "All Bengaluru flights during this period got diverted to Chennai. I finally reached Bengaluru after spending 2.5 hours on the runway in Chennai."

According to GHIAL (GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.) spokesperson, the Indigo flight 6E 7117 suffered multiple tyre bursts at 10.04 pm on Wednesday night while landing at the Hyderabad airport.

All four main gear wheels burst on landing. Indigo team supported by airport officials changed two of the four tyres as per airline Disabled Aircraft Recovery Plan, after which the aircraft was safely towed away. Operations resumed at around 2.22 am on Thursday.

The incident caused diversion of 31 flights, including 10 international flights, and cancellation of 14 domestic flights.

The airport authorities said that the cancellations were mostly due to late arrivals from the diverted airport stations, and Crew Flight Duty Limitations (FDTL) issue.

The Airport Fire Rescue team ensured that the sparking caused due to multiple tyre burst did not get out of control and all the passengers were deplaned without injury.

There were 72 passengers, including YSRCP legislator Roja, on the IndiGo flight.

The aircraft took off from Tirupati around 8.55 pm. Roja, who had a narrow escape, said that the passengers spent almost an hour inside the aircraft as the crew did not allow them to come out till the condition of the aircraft was thoroughly checked.

"Few passengers started fighting with the crew," Roja said. Many passengers also uploaded videos shot on their smartphones and posted them on the social media, describing their experience.