The Director General of Civil Aviation E K Bharat Bhushan ordered an inquiry into an incident in which a Gulf Air Flight from Bahrain with 137 passengers on board skidded off the runway at Kochi International airport in the wee hours on Monday.
Gulf Air flight GF-270 with six crew slipped from the runway at 1:25am (Bahrain time) this morning. “Some passengers panicked and jumped from the aircraft through the emergency door even before the ladder was brought to the plane,” eye witnesses said.
Heavy rains and strong winds have been lashing Kochi airport since last night are likely to be blamed for Gulf Air 270 accident, leaving seven injured and cauding extensive damage to the aircraft.
Flights to Kochi are being diverted to Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore airports. “An Etihad flight from Kuwait, two Jet airways flights from Sharjah and Muscat have been diverted to Thiruvananthapuram, an Oman-Kochi flight has been sent to Bangalore. Passengers are being brought by road to Kochi from Thiruvananthapuram,” Kochi airport official said.
According to the official reports, the scheduled departures of three flights of Emirates, Air Arabia and Qatar Airways, which were at the airport at the time of mishap, have been delayed.
Bhushan said the runway has been blocked till 3pm. “A Disabled Aircraft Retrieval Kit is being sent from Mumbai,” he said. Bhushan said the reason behind the mishap was not yet known. “There was visibility till 2,000 metres. Only after a preliminary enquiry, the cause of the mishap will be known,” he added.