NEW DELHI, Sept 14: A private jet skid off the runway and crashed while trying to land amid heavy rain at Mumbai airport on Thursday evening. All eight on board – five passengers and three crew – were injured and have been hospitalised, official sources said.
The extent of their injuries is unknown. No casualties have been reported so far. The runway has been cleared of debris and normal operations have resumed – post safety checks and clearance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The incident took place near Runway 27, which was slippery because of the rain. Visibility was reportedly around 700 metres at the time.
The private jet nosedived and crashed on the runway and later skidded to the taxi way. The nose section broke due to the impact of the crash. Both the pilots were critically injured and were rushed to hospital.
Video footage of the crash appears to show the plane striking the ground with considerable force and the aircraft body seems to skid along the ground for a bit. Other visuals from the Mumbai airport showed murky grey skies and the wreckage of the plane on the far side of the runway. Initial visuals showed the wreckage still on fire. The blaze was put out by emergency services.
According to the DGCA, the plane was a Learjet 45 – a nine-seater super-light business jet produced by a division of Canada-based Bombardier Aviation – registered to VSR Ventures, which is believed to be a Bengaluru-based real estate development firm, was operating flight from Vizag to Mumbai. The plane was chartered by Dilip Buildcon and was inbound from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. CSMIA’s airside team is on-ground to assist with the clearance on-site, a spokesperson said.
The runway was closed briefly, during which Vistara Airlines said five of its flights were diverted and others “are likely to be impacted’. The diverted flights are UK622 (from Varanasi) and UK124 (from Bangkok) and UK933 (from Delhi), UK518 (from Kochi), and UK865 (from Dehradun). The first two have been diverted to Hyderabad and the three latter flights have been sent to Goa’s Mopa Airport.
(Manas Dasgupta)
