Flight operations at the Chennai airport were suspended for nearly half-an-hour on Tuesday morning after an oil spill was noticed on the main runway and taxi track. Arrival of six flights, including two cargo flights, was delayed by about half-an-hour. According to airport sources, around 8 a.m. an Airports Authority of India (AAI) officer noticed the fuel leakage on runway 25 and taxi track ‘Juliet.' It was traced to an Airbus A-310 aircraft of Air Deccan Cargo 360 flight.
Immediately, the cargo aircraft was taken back to the cargo area in the old airport. Preliminary investigations revealed that fuel from the first tank was leaking.
Owing to the oil spill, both the runway and taxi track were closed for operation. AAI officials cleaned the runway and taxi track by spraying water and sawdust on the spillage.
The flights which were delayed included Air India flight IC-909 operated on the Thiruvananthapuram–Bangalore–Chennai sector, IC-439 New Delhi–Chennai, Emirates EK-544 Dubai–Chennai, Kingfisher IT-3181 New Delhi–Chennai, Deccan Cargo Istanbul–Chennai and Blue Dart cargo flight between New Delhi and Chennai.
