All 140 passengers and crew are safe after an Air India Express jet made a hard landing at Phuket International Airport on Wednesday, but the resulting seven-hour runway closure resulted in many flight disruptions.
Airport authorities closed the runway so that crews could move the damaged Boeing 737-300 jet, and it was 7pm before the runway was open again.
Air India Express Flight AXB938 from Hyderabad landed at 11.24am. The plane was carrying 133 passengers and seven crew members.
A preliminary investigation found that the aircraft had performed a hard landing, resulting in damage to the nose gear assembly. The damage rendered the aircraft unable to be moved off the runway immediately. No injuries were reported.
All passengers safely left the aircraft.
After the runway closure was announced at 12.08pm, flights started to be diverted to nearby airports including Krabi and Surat Thani, as well as Bangkok.
The airport advised passengers affected by the disruption that a backlog of flights could cause delays continuing into Wednesday evening. Officials advised passengers to check with their airlines before travelling to the airport.
