Pune Airport runway was temporarily closed for flights on Friday night, after an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft incident. Officials are at the site and trying to restore routine operations at the earliest, IAF said in a post on X.
"Pune runway is temporarily unavailable due to an incident involving an IAF aircraft. The aircrew are safe and there is no damage to civil property. Efforts are underway to operationalise the runway and resume normal operations at the earliest," said IAF in X post.
This happened after an IAF aircraft suffered a "hard landing" on the runway at Pune airport. According to airport authorities, the incident occurred at around 10.25 pm on Friday, when an IAF aircraft's landing gear failed during landing and blocked the runway.
According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), to clear the runway, it will take at least 4 to 5 hours. After the clearance, normal operations will resume.
As per the flight tracking data system, at least eight Pune-bound flights were diverted to multiple airports across the country, including Goa, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Chennai and Coimbatore due to the runway being closed at Pune airport. Passengers experienced delays and rerouting while restoration work continued.
Also Read | IAF aircraft incident renders Pune runway temporarily unavailable, crew safe.
Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol on the IAF aircraft incident at Pune Airport: "Runway operations at Pune Airport are temporarily suspended due to an incident involving an IAF aircraft. Thankfully, the aircrew are safe and there has been no damage to civil property."
"Airlines have been informed, and it may take approximately 5 hours to restore normal runway operations. I am in constant touch with the Airport Director and Air Force officials to ensure the situation is resolved at the earliest," he added.
According to data from Flightradar24, at least 32 flights arriving from various cities were diverted or cancelled. According to Pune Airport director, the IAF jet experienced an undercarriage failure after it had a hard landing at 10.25 pm.
Arrivals
The 6:35 am IndiGo flight 6E607 from Chennai.The 6:45 am IndiGo flight 6E5322 from Delhi.The 6:50 am Akasa Air flight QP1311 from Bengaluru.
Departures
The 6:40 am IndiGo flight 6E391 to Bengaluru.The 7:20 am IndiGo flight 6E956 to Vadodara.The 7:25 am IndiGo flight 6E2375 to Delhi.