Phuket airport closes runway until 6pm after hard-landing incident
Phuket International Airport temporarily closed its runway after an aircraft made a hard landing, damaging its landing gear and disrupting arriving flights.
At around noon on Wednesday (March 11), an Air India Express Boeing 737 MAX 8 operating on the Hyderabad–Phuket route suffered an incident on the runway at Phuket International Airport. The problem was reportedly caused by a detached wheel, which is believed to have resulted from a hard landing.
Airport officials, however, were able to bring the situation under control and began an inspection, while all 133 passengers were disembarked and taken to the passenger waiting area. All passengers were reported safe.
Following the incident, Phuket International Airport announced a temporary closure of the runway in order to remove the aircraft and carry out safety checks on the runway before flight operations could resume. It was initially estimated that the process would take around six hours.
As a result, all flights scheduled to land at Phuket International Airport were required to hold in nearby airspace, while some were diverted to alternate airports.
In its latest statement, Phuket International Airport said that Air India Express flight AXB938 from Hyderabad to Phuket encountered a problem on the runway after landing. The aircraft was identified as a Boeing 737-800, registration VT-BWQ.
It arrived at Phuket International Airport ahead of schedule, with a planned landing time of 11.40am and an actual landing time of 11.24am. There were seven crew members, 131 arriving passengers and two infants on board.
Preliminary checks found that the aircraft had made a hard landing, causing damage to the nose landing gear and preventing it from being moved off the runway immediately. However, no injuries were reported.
Phuket International Airport issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) from 12.08pm to 6pm to announce the temporary runway closure. It also coordinated with relevant agencies to manage the situation and strictly followed airport safety procedures.
Passengers affected by the incident have been advised to contact their airline directly to check flight status and travel details before heading to the airport, in order to avoid missing their flight.
