Flight operations at the airport were disrupted for 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon after the main runway suffered damage when an aircraft of a private airline made a sharp turn towards the taxiing bay.

The incident took place between 11.30 am and 11.45 am. “The aircraft’s wheel peeled off a portion of the concrete of the runway,” said airport director V.K. Monga. “The main runway had to be closed for emergency repair work. The secondary runway was also out of bounds, since it is being strengthened.”

Officials said a 10-ft-long, four-ft-wide and three-inch-deep crater was formed due to the concrete peeling off. The pilot of an aircraft that landed at the airport spotted the damage and informed the authorities. They immediately stopped operations on the runway.

“The directorate-general of civil aviation is probing the incident. It will track the aircraft that caused the damage,” stated Monga.

The runway was closed from 11.50 am to 1.20 pm. Six domestic and two international flights, which were scheduled to land in between, were diverted elsewhere. The flights that were scheduled to take off were also delayed.

The Air Deccan flight from Raipur, the Indian flight from Silchar and a Jet Airways flight from Bangalore were diverted to Bhubaneswar. The Mumbai-Calcutta Jet Airways flight and the Kingfisher flight from Delhi proceeded to Guwahati, while the Air Sahara plane from Patna returned to the Bihar capital.

Air-India’s London-Calcutta flight was redirected to Delhi, while the GMG Airline plane from Dhaka was sent back. All the flights returned to Calcutta in the afternoon and evening, said airport officials.

One of them observed that an aircraft that had landed probably inflicted the runway damage. “The plane was moving at a high speed while entering the taxiing bay from the runway. The pilot took a sharp turn without slowing down, which led to the concrete coming off. This does not happen frequently,” he explained.

The secondary runway could have been used if it was not being strengthened. This is part of the extension of the secondary runway, which is scheduled to be completed by March 2007. The extended runway is expected to take the load off the main runway and ease congestion at the airport.

The main and the secondary runway are 3,627 m and 2,399 m long, respectively. The length of the secondary runway will be increased by 440 m on the northern side.