Air India flight lands on wrong runway at Male airport; pilots taken off duty

Male, Sep 7: Air India flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Male landed on a non-operational runway at Velana International Airport in Maldives.

In a statement, Air India said that the Airbus A320 Neo aircraft landed on an under-construction runway. All 136 passengers and crew on board the flight are safe. It is investigating why the flight landed on the wrong runway. The aircraft had to be towed to the parking bay at the Velana International Airport.

A senior Air India official confirmed to news agency PTI that the aircraft "landed on an under-construction runway at Male".

The Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has been informed of the matter and the two pilots involved have been taken off flying duties, aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

Reports said that the new runway is 3,400ft long and 60 meters wide. The 'Code F' standard runway will have the capacity to manage the largest airlines from across the world. More than 60 hectares of land was reclaimed for to build the runway when the project to construct it began in 2015.

In August, a Jet Airways flight was not even on the runway when it tried to take off from the Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia.