The official, who did not want to be named, touched upon the incident which blocked IKA’s main runway early Monday morning explaining “a Boeing 747 belonging to a Turkish airline and leased by Iran's national flag carrier airline, Iran Air (HOMA), landed on the main runway of the international airport and approached end of the runway while its engines were still on. In an attempt to avoid sliding off the runway, the pilot was forced to make a U-turn at high speed and, as a result, the aircraft taxied off the runway for a short distance before coming back on track.”
“Given that the engines were still working, veering off the runway led to replacement of piles of stones and debris from the sidelines to the main runway,” he continued.
In response to a question on conditions of passengers and the aircraft, the source noted that all passengers had been completely evacuated from the plane and that the aircraft had received no damages.
He however highlighted that making a U-turn with running engines, compounded by the heavy weight of Boeing 747, can have caused damages to the main runway.
Runway of Imam Khomeini International Airport was blocked on Monday morning at 3:30 AM Tehran local time and the controller asked several approaching planes to go around. Consequently, a number of flights were diverted to the alternative airport, Isfahan International Airport.
Presently, the operation for landing and taking off of aircraft is being carried out through three parallel runways before the main one becomes operational again.
What's more, incoming and outgoing flights at IKA are currently being performed with delays due to the Monday morning incident.
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