PESHAWAR: The landing gear of a passenger plane of Saudi airline caught fire after landing at Bacha Khan International Airport here on Thursday.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials said that Saudia flight SV-792 carrying hajis arrived from Riyadh and was about to land when the air traffic controller communicated sparks in the landing gear to the pilot. The fire brigade and rescue services were also alerted.

The left landing gear of the plane caught fire just after touchdown. The fire tenders rushed to the plane after it came to a halt and swiftly extinguish the fire and prevented any major accident, a statement issued by CAA said.

All the 276 hajis and 21 crew members were safely evacuated from the aircraft through an inflammable slide, the statement said.

CAA officials said the flight operations at BKIA were suspended and all the flights were diverted to Islamabad, adding that the flights scheduled for Thursday night and Friday morning would continue according to the plan.

Later, the passengers left for their homes.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2024