• Home
• /
• World
• /
• Gulf

Tyre piece on runway force brief Dubai Airport closure

DUBAI - The Dubai International Airport was closed briefly from 4.12 pm until 4.50 pm yesterday following reports of pieces of tyre tread found on one of its runways.

A source at the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) confirmed the closure saying the decision to close the airport briefly and clear the runway of the tyre tread was according to international norms and in the interest of the safety of both passengers and the aircraft.

Security and safety official at the runway who noticed parts of tyres on the runway immediately notified the air traffic control tower which decided to divert the incoming flights to other UAE airports until the runway was cleared, the source informed. Airport seizure, under such circumstances is very normal, he said, stating that only few incoming flights were affected-one diverted to Abu Dhabi and another to Kish.

The source said the Dubai International Airport has two runways, but one is temporarily out of operation due to some work being carried out.

A source at the flight information desk at Dubai airport however said the airlines were issued communiqué about the temporary closure of the airport and the subsequent diversion of flights. But, an airline official denied receiving an such advance indication of the airport closure resulting in some flights being forced to divert to other UAE airports including Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, or circling the city until the runway was cleared of the debris.

A Qatar Airline flight which departed Doha at 3pm local time was scheduled to land in Dubai at 5pm. But the flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, and returned to Dubai around 6.55 pm 9Dubai time). A passenger disclosed that in an announcement made by the crew in English informed that the pilot had received instructions to divert the flight to Abu Dhabi because the Dubai airport runway was busy due to heavy traffic. But, the announcement made in Arabic reported that the airport was closed and the passengers should remain in the aircraft while in Abu Dhabi until further information received from Dubai.

A source of another airline reported that the incoming flight from Delhi scheduled to land in Dubai at 4pm was forced to remain airborne circling the city for almost 40 minutes, before getting the clearance to land. The official said they later learnt that the runway was closed due to some debris found. But, we were not informed how the debris landed on the runway.

The official disclosed that they had no advance notice of the airport closure. However, they were informed of the closure when the flight was approaching landing. We were asked to re-direct the flight to Sharjah, but the commander decided to continue circling the city until clearance to land, the official disclosed. She added that their departing flight scheduled for Bombay left on schedule at 5pm.