Mumbai, March 11 An Air India Express Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, carrying 138 people, made a hard landing at Phuket airport on Wednesday, and its two nose wheels detached, leaving the aircraft stuck on the runway for hours, officials said.
Passengers were deplaned and taken to the terminal building. No one was injured, a senior DGCA official said.
According to officials, airport operations were temporarily suspended as the aircraft was stuck on the runway and was later towed to the bay.
The aircraft, VT-BWQ, operated flight IX938 from Hyderabad to Phuket.
"The nose wheels have been reattached to the aircraft involved in the incident at Phuket airport, allowing normal airport operations to resume," an Air India Express spokesperson said in a statement.
It could not be immediately ascertained for how long the aircraft was stuck on the runway, as well as for how long the airport operations were suspended.
Following the incident, the two pilots have been grounded, one of the officials said, adding that there were 138 people, including 6 crew members.
The aircraft was involved in a suspected hard landing with a bounce on runway 9 at the Phuket airport, the DGCA official said.
A hard landing in aviation terms is usually an unintentional landing where an aircraft hits the ground with excessive vertical speed and force.
"The aircraft is stuck on the runway, both nose wheels have detached," the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) official said earlier in the day.
The official said that both nose wheels of the aircraft were replaced as part of routine maintenance on March 8.
An investigation would be carried out by the appropriate authority after consultation with the Thai aviation authorities, the official said.
Earlier in the day, an airline spokesperson said the plane experienced an issue with the nose wheel at the Phuket airport, and the crew followed all standard protocols, and guests were deplaned.