Potholes on Mumbai airport runway delay flights

Mumbai: Three days of incessant rains forced the closure of Mumbai airport for 20 minutes on Tuesday.
Water-logging and potholes on the runway led to one flight being diverted, while two were made to do go-arounds, delaying flight schedules throughout the day.
The downpour seriously affected the functioning of the main runway 09-27. “Due to rains in the afternoon, there was water-logging on the runway,” said an official from Mumbai International Airport Limited (Mial).
Heavy showers since the past three days also created potholes on the main runway. This is quite surprising as the runway had undergone pre-monsoon repairs on June 8.
A 100-metre stretch at the beginning of runway 09 was pockmarked by Tuesday afternoon, forcing its closure from 12.40pm to 1pm for emergency repair works. As runway 09 is used for landing, it severely affected arrival of flights. “Kingfisher flight IT 306 Delhi-Mumbai was diverted to Ahmedabad, while two Air India flights, IC 865 Jamnagar-Mumbai and IC 148 Delhi-Mumbai, had to do a go-around of 45 minutes,” the Mial official said. The problem was compounded as the secondary runway 14-32 is not used during monsoon.
04/08/10 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: airports aug 2010