International flights suspended at Nepal airport

Kathmandu, March 5: Nepal's only international airport, the Tribhuwan International Airport, announced that all international flights have been suspended till 4.00 p.m. Thursday.

A spokesperson at the Tribhuwan International Airport, Purna Prasad Chudal, informed that all international flights have been called off given the obstruction at the runway of the airport after a Turkish Airlines flight skidded off the runway while landing on Wednesday morning, Xinhua reported.

The officials informed that the runway of the airport has faced an obstruction for all international flights as the crash-landed Turkish airplane could not be removed from the run-way given the lack of flight removal equipment.

The Turkish Airline Flight TK 726 met the accident at the Nepal 's international airport at 8.00 a.m. local time in course of landing. All 227 people on board and 11 crew members were safe.

Chudal said that all passengers and crew were evacuated through an emergency exit after the nose cone of the plane touched the runway. Officials said the plane overshot the runway due to poor visibility.

Nepal's Tourism Ministry officials hope that they would be able to remove the crash-landed plane only after bringing equipments from neighboring India. "We hope that we can resume flight services for international flights at the airport from Thursday evening," Chudal said.

IANS