Ahmedabad:
The Ahmedabad airport was forced to shut down for seven hours on Thursday with a Jet Airways plane stranded on the runway, and began operations again by about 4 am on Friday.
Several early morning flights were delayed because of the backlog, but the flight schedule is back to normal now.
The airport was shut down late on Thursday evening after the nose wheel of a Jet Airways plane - flight 9W 2510 to Indore - came off. The flight was scheduled to take off at 8.55 pm, but was stuck on the runway as airport authorities tried to move the aircraft without damaging the runway.
According to a Jet Airways press release, the pilots had to abort take off as the nose wheel came out. All 57 passengers and 4 crew members were safe. They were deplaned and taken to the terminal building, Jet Airways said last night.
With plane blocking a portion of the runway, other flights could not take off. A Notice to Air Men (NOTAM) was issued and the runway was closed, while a crane was called in to tow away the aircraft.
Sourabh Kakkar, a passenger stranded at the airport last night, told NDTV that they had been told it would take 3-4 hours. Kakkar was on an Air India flight that was stranded on the runway. He said they too were asked to deplane but complained that there were no arrangements at the airport for them.