All 224 passengers on board a Turkish Airlines flight had a narrow escape when their Airbus A330 aircraft skidded off the runway at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) here early on Wednesday morning. The terminal, Nepal’s only international airport, was ordered shut till 4pm on Thursday as the airport does not have equipment to relocate the aircraft from the runway, authorities said.
The Turkish passenger jet, while landing at TIA — where torrential rains for the last three days have rendered the weather foggy and visibility poor — missed the central alignment of the runway and skidded on to the adjacent grassy surface around 7.45am on Wednesday.
The front gear of the aircraft collapsed upon landing and the airbus skidded for at least 1,000 metres on the grassy verge before coming to a stop.
“The plane skidded for at least 1,000 metres,” said a statement issued by the TIA authorities adding that foam extinguishers were used to prevent any damage.
All 235 people, including 224 passengers, aboard the Turkish Airlines flight TK-757 from Istanbul were evacuated through the emergency doors. Besides 11 crew members, there were also an infant on the flight. Images of the aircraft circulating on social networking site Twitter showed the plane lying on the grassy surface near the airport fire station with its nose resting on the ground.
Before being given permission to land, the Turkish passenger jet was told to circle for almost an hour due to poor ground visibility.
The decision to shut flight operations at TIA till the damaged aircraft was removed from the runway affected travel plans of several thousand passengers bound for international destinations, including New Delhi, who were planning to fly out Wednesday from here.