Air India Express aircraft's nose wheel faces malfunction at Phuket airport — here's what we know
An Air India Express plane operating its Hyderabad-Phuket flight encountered a nose-wheel issue at Phuket International Airport in Thailand, the airline said on Wednesday. The number of passengers onboard the Boeing 737-Max8 aircraft was not immediately known.
The nose wheel is a critical component of an aircraft's landing gear system, responsible for supporting the front part of the plane during taxiing, takeoff, and landing.
"We confirm that our Hyderabad-Phuket flight on March 11 experienced an issue with the nose wheel at Phuket Airport," Air India Express said in a statement.
Phuket shuts runway after the incident
The only runway at Phuket Airport is closed after a landing incident involving Air India Express flight, according to tracking website Flightradar.
After the incident, all the passengers on board were deplaned and taken to the terminal building. An official has told PT that there has been no injury to any passenger or the crew members due to the incident.
“The aircraft landed at 04:24 UTC and pictures in social media show the aircraft on the runway with it's front landing gear damaged,” it said on X.
According to NOTAM, the runway will remain remain closed until 11:00 UTC, Flightradar added.
Nose wheel is a critical component of an aircraft's landing gear system.
Air India said in a statement that: “We confirm that our Hyderabad-Phuket flight on March 11 experienced an issue with the nose wheel at Phuket Airport.”
Flight IX 938 took off from Hyderabad at 6.42 am instead of its scheduled departure time of 6.20 am, and landed at Phuket International Airport 11.40 am local time, according to flight tracking website flightradar24.com.
"The crew followed all standard protocols, and guests were deplaned," Air India Express said in the statement.
While the airport in Phuket remains closed for now, the runway was expected to reopen at 6 pm local time, a statement from the airport mentioned.
What happened with Air India flight?
News agency PTI quoted a DGCA official as saying that the aircraft was involved in a suspected hard landing with a bounce on runway 9 at the Phuket airport.
A hard landing in aviation parlance is usually an unintentional landing where an aircraft hits the ground with excessive vertical speed and force.
A DGCA official said that the aircraft became “stuck on the runway” after both of its nose wheels detached. The official added that the appropriate authority would conduct an investigation in consultation with Thailand’s aviation authorities.
(With agency inputs)
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