By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU, May 11 (Reuters) – A tyre of a Turkish Airlines plane caught fire after it landed on Monday in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu, authorities said, forcing the closure of the airport for an hour.
All 277 passengers and 11 crew on the Airbus A330 arriving from Istanbul were evacuated using the emergency exits following the fire, and nobody was injured, Gyanendra Bhul, a Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal spokesperson, told Reuters.
“The fire broke out in the right rear tyre of the aircraft … The fire was doused and the plane was towed to the taxiway … It is grounded,” Bhul said.
Turkish Airlines said smoke was observed in the landing gear while taxiing, and technical inspections had been initiated.
“Initial assessments indicate that the smoke was caused by a technical malfunction in a hydraulic pipe,” Yahya Ustun, the airline’s senior vice president, communications, said on social media platform X.
An additional flight has been planned for the return of the passengers, he added.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jamie Freed)
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