Thousands of passengers delayed; flight operations diverted to secondary runway.Mumbai airport’s main runway remained shut for nearly 21 hours after an aircraft suffered a tyre burst while landing. Flight operations had to be shifted to the shorter secondary runway which resulted in delays and diversions.The aircraft, a Lufthansa Airbus A330, landed at main runway of the Mumbai airport at 10:53 pm on Friday and came to a halt at the rapid exit way November 1. Airport officials, detecting a fire in the landing gear, sent in firefighters who quickly surrounded the plane and sprayed its belly and surroundings with firefighting foam.Four tyres of the aircraft landing gear were discovered to be damaged. The passengers were not evacuated. The main runway had to be closed despite the aircraft not blocking it because the November 1 rapid exit way is the most used for arriving aircraft. The plane was finally towed away from the rapid exit 1 at 7:50 pm on Saturday.In a statement, Lufthansa said, “Four tyres of the aircraft of flight LH764 from Munich to Mumbai had been damaged. The plane could not immediately be moved from runway. There were 163 passengers on board the Airbus A330. They had to leave the plane via stairs, positioned on the runway. The plane will be removed from the runway after the assembly of four new tyres. Flight LH765 on May 14 had to be cancelled and 223 passengers were affected. Lufthansa is trying to rebook them on other flights.”The incident resulted in delays and diversions at the airport. Those affected overnight included a Cathay Pacific cargo aircraft which had to be diverted to Hyderabad and a Singapore Airlines Airbus 380. Air India and United Airlines flights to Newark could not take off due to the load penalties the shorter secondary runway imposed. Several departing aircraft headed towards Europe also had to take off with reduced cargo because of the load penalties.Singapore Airlines officials, whose A380 remained stranded due to the runway closure said, “Flight SQ423 is delayed in Mumbai due to a temporary runway closure. There were 427 passengers and 25 crew on board. Passengers have been provided with hotel accommodations and a revised departure time will be determined when the runway is reopened by the authorities.”Though airport officials said flight movements were unaffected, airlines reported delays. Jet Airways and Indigo informed passengers that all its arrivals and departures throughout Saturday were late by at least 30 minutes owing to main runway closure.Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials who inspected the grounded aircraft said that prima-facie, it seemed as if the aircraft’s anti-skid system, which protected the brakes from locking, could have failed.While the incident took place at 10.53 pm on Friday, the salvage operations commenced only at 8.30 am on Saturday, when a 14-member team of Jet Airway’s engineering department started the task of fitting the wheels so that the aircraft could be towed away from the operational area.Officials said that with the brakes and wheels having come off, the landing gear was scraping against the ground. This required the aircraft to be hydraulically lifted for the fitting to be carried out. The last time the main runway had to remain shut for close to 10 hours was on March 3-4 after a Jet Airways flight got similarly stuck following a tyre burst.