Mumbai: A private jet with eight people onboard veered off the runway at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport followed by a crash on Thursday while landing amid heavy rain.
According to the airport authority, eight people, including a crew member, have suffered injuries and were taken to nearest hospital.
The Directorate General of Civil (DGCA) Aviation said the aircraft skidded off the runaway due to poor visibility following heavy rain.
A video clip has been released which shows murky grey skies filled the airspace above the airport and the aircraft lying wrecked on the sidelines of the runway. Fire engines and airport rescue team could also be seen present at the spot.
The aircraft was a mid-size business jet named Learjet 45 VT-DBL operated by VSR Ventures. It was carrying the passengers from Vishakhapatnam to Mumbai. The incident took place at around 5:02 pm on Thursday.
The aircraft was carrying eight people including six passengers, one from Denmark, and two crew members. Among the passengers – Dhruv Kotak, Lars Sorensen, KK Krishnadas, Aakarsh Sethi, Arul Sali and Kamakshi were onboard the aircraft, which was being operated by pilots Sunil and Neil.
A total of five passengers, both pilots and one crew member have sustained superficial injuries and are being treated at Criticare Asia Hospital in Andheri East. Medical officials said the flyers are in a state of shock.
The Mumbai airport was shut earlier for operations to carry out inspection. It was later reopened after clearance from DGCA at 06:47 pm after all safety checks were conducted.
The debris near the runway has been cleared off for smooth operations.
Few flights have been delayed or diverted after the jet crash. A flight tracker website showed that all Mumbai-bound flights were either diverted to other cities or flying in the airspace in a holding partten.
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