Kannur-Hubballi Indigo flight's tyre bursts while landing; passengers, crew safe 

HUBBALLI: Air passengers suffered anxious moments after Kannur-Hubballi flight had a tyre burst while landing on Monday evening. Luckily none of the passengers and crew members suffered any injuries in the incident.

The Indigo ATR operating 6e-7979 flight was heading to Hubballi from Kannur Airport in Kerala. It was supposed to land at Hubballi Airport at 8:03 pm. However, due to bad weather following high wind and rain, the craft was not able to land on its first attempt. On its second attempt to land at 8.33 PM, the aircraft had a tyre burst while landing. 

According to sources, there were seven passengers and four crew members on board and no one suffered any injuries. After the incident, the runway was blocked for maintenance till Tuesday at 8 am. Later it was opened for  flight operations.

Hubballi Airport director Pramod Kumar Thakre said due to heavy wind the aircraft was forced to make a hard landing that led to the tyre burst. The runway was not damaged except for some scratches in the incident. The staff at the airport removed tyre parts and cleaned the area before reopening the runway for Bengaluru-Hubballi flight to land on Tuesday morning.

The Indigo craft that suffered the tyre blast will be repaired by technical crew members of the airline company at Hubballi Airport, sources said.

In 2015, a similar incident had taken place when SpiceJet plane from Bengaluru skidded off the runway following heavy rain in Hubballi Airport. Nobody was hurt in that incident.

Last week, Instrumental Landing System that provides accurate landing information to the pilot was commissioned in Hubballi airport to prevent any mishaps on the runway.