An Indian Air Force (IAF) transport aircraft overshot the main runway of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) here on Tuesday night, resulting in a minor disruption in flight operations.

The incident took place at 11.39 pm, when the twin-engine military aircraft Antonov AN-32 was preparing to take off from the main runway at CSIA here for IAF base at Yelhanka located on the outskirts of Bengaluru.  

Both the IAF and CSIA confirmed the incident. “We confirm that the departing IAF aircraft had runway excursion at 2339 hours at RWY 27,” a CSIA official said.

“The aircraft had abandoned take-off view a technical issue and overshot the runway. The aircraft and crew are safe. A recovery team has arrived Mumbai and the aircraft will be cleared shortly, “a defence ministry spokesperson said.

Following the mishap, at least a dozen flights were delayed as the authorities shifted the operations from runway 0927 to the secondary 14/32 runway.  “There was 15-20 minute delay in the departures of flights from Mumbai,” an airport official said.   

“The runway 27 was cleared and handed over for operations at 4.50 pm today,” the IAF spokesperson said.

With a unique layout, the Mumbai airport which is the second busiest in the country, has two runways — the main runway 09/27 and a secondary one 14/32 — intersecting each other.

The primary runway has the capacity to handle up to 48 arrivals and departures per hour, while the secondary runway can handle 35 movements per hour. On an average, there are 970 flight arrivals and departures at the Mumbai airport every day.

 A large part of the operations is carried out from the main runway.