As the process of lifting the Turkish Airlines Aircraft has already completed and tires of aircraft has replaced, technicians are now working to safely toe the aircraft to the run way and bring it to parking yard for further maintenance.  Resumption of TIA operation will likely on Saturday morning.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said, “Looking at the progress so far, it seems highly likely that the resumption of the airport will be likely not before 6 PM.

After all attempts to remove the 150-tonne Airbus A330 failed, TIA had to seek assistance of the Indian Air Force yesterday. IAF’s Hercules aircraft landed with the aircraft removal kit, along with a technical team, at 1:07pm and returned to India at 2:30pm. Informing about the developments so far, Shiva Sharma, terminal duty manager at the TIA, said, “The front part of the aircraft was lifted slightly today and we will continue to work until around 11:00pm.” According to him, the work would resume early tomorrow morning.

Earlier, Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, CAAN director general, had said, “It can take up to 24 hours to remove the plane from its current location.” He had added that they were hopeful of opening the airport after 10:00am tomorrow. When TIA announced suspension of all international flights till 4:00pm today, more than 40 inbound and outbound international carriers were affected. As the runway was not fully available, domestic flights were also affected since the Domestic Airport shares the runway with the TIA reports THT Online.