SCORES of flights were delayed and diverted on Sunday at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) due to damages on the runway. Flight operations at TIA, the country’s only international airport, were halted for one and half hours on Sunday afternoon as half centimeter of pitch between the way 4 and 5 on the southern face of the runway fell apart. Around a dozen planes were diverted from the sky following the incident. Subsequently, the airport management informed about the closure of the airport at 1:30 pm before issuing a ‘Notice to Airmen” (NOTAM) at 2:20pm. The planes were allowed to land at the airport only after 3pm, without using the damaged portion of the runway. The management, however, claimed that the airport had been closed for only 45 minutes. Sources said the runway was fully used only after 3:50pm. But the incident delayed several of the flights, some of them by as much as two hours. This is the third such incident related to the runway since August 3. Following the falling apart of the pitch, the airport had to be closed twice on August 3. Due to the incident, international flights heading to TIA, including Air Arabia, Jet Airways and Air India were forced to stay in the sky for around 45 minutes. Among the domestic flights, those coming from Pokhara suffered the most. Two planes each belonging to Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines, which flew in from Pokhara could not land and were subsequently diverted back to Pokhara. Two Buddha Air planes from Bhairawaha and Biratnagar had also been diverted.
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