MUMBAI: Forty-two passengers on board a Kingfisher flight had a close brush with catastrophe when their aircraft skidded off the runway moments after landing at Mumbai airport on Tuesday afternoon. Flight IT 4124 from Bhavnagar landed and was moving towards a taxiway to vacate the runway. But instead of turning right onto the taxiway, the plane skidded off the runway and into a grassy patch. There were no casualties. Preliminary reports said the pilot could not control the aircraft's speed while vacating the runway. Low visibility and the wet tarmac aggravated the situation. As repairs were on, only a shortened runway-roughly half the usual length-was available for operations. Officials said that the short length left no margin for error. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered an enquiry into the incident. Its head, Naseem Zaidi, said DGCA had issued an instruction to all airlines not to land on a wet runway while shortened-runway operations were on. "We...
Get to know about News and lifestyle