Hajj flight catches fire at Srinagar airport

Srinagar: An airbus scheduled to carry second batch of pilgrims from J&K to Jeddah met with an accident at the Srinagar airport on Monday. Nobody was however injured.
Reports said the tyre of airbus, A300 of Air India's domestic wing, previously known as Indian which was to lift 215 pilgrims, caught fire resulting in a blast. The blast triggered panic at the airport that is counted among the heavily guarded airports of the world.
The incident occurred when the airbus was arriving at the airport at 12: 30 pm. "The tyre caught fire after safe run on the runway. Exact reasons of the fire are not known yet but it's likely that it might have occurred due to heavy friction of the tyre with the surface," sources told Greater Kashmir.
They said that only the crew was on board at the time of the incident. "No one was injured in the blast and crew members of the airbus and pilgrims are safe. Employees on duty in the airport controlled the situation," the sources added.
Later in the evening, the airport authorities told Greater Kashmir that the flight would leave for Jeddah by 6:30 pm. "The tyre was replaced and there was no other damage to the airbus," they added.
12/11/07 Mudasir Ali/GreaterKashmir.com (press release)

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Categories: Air India - International Nov 2007, Airports Nov 2007, Foreign Nov 2007, NACIL Nov 2007, Safety Nov 2007