Phuket: Operations had to be suspended at the Phuket airport in Thailand after an Air India Express flight from Hyderabad suffered a nose-wheel issue while landing there shortly before noon on Wednesday.
The airline confirmed the incident but provided no details. Sources said that the nose-wheel collapsed while landing, leaving the aircraft stranded on the runway, rendering it unusable.
The number of passengers onboard the Boeing 737-Max8 aircraft was not immediately known. However, all of them have been reported to be safe.
“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.
“The crew followed all standard protocols, and guests were deplaned,” the airline added.
According to flight tracking website flightradar24.com, flight IX 938 took off from Hyderabad at 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 (10.10 am IST).
The nose wheel is a critical component of an aircraft’s landing gear system. This wheel leaves the ground first and lands last. In case of a collapse, the front portion of the aircraft can tilt, making its removal from the runway difficult.
