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Goa Airport Closed Amid Fire Involving MiG-29K Fighter - Indian Navy

Goa Airport has said in a statement that operations have been closed for two hours due to a jettisoned fuel tank on the runway, which occurred during a MiG sortie.
Sputnik

Goa Airport has been temporarily closed after an incident caused by a "drop tank of MiG 29K which got detached whilst taking off", the Indian Navy spokesperson said on Twitter.

No one was injured in the incident.

According to a spokesperson for the airport, Indian Navy personnel promptly arrived at the site, "cleaning the fuel from the runway and carrying out repair along the stretch".

"These are external fuel tanks outfitted to aircraft in order to enable them to cover more distance. One such tank attached to a MiG-29K got jettisoned off the jet during a sortie and landed on the runway", the spokesperson stated.

The Indian Navy has published photos of the black fumes rising from the place of the fire. 

READ MORE: ​All Issues Pertaining to Serviceability of MiG-29K Sorted Out — Indian Navy

About seven flights from different parts of India that were supposed to land at Goa Airport have been redirected to Mangaluru Airport in Karnataka.

The Indian Navy later reported that flights resumed about an hour after the incident.

Goa Airport is the area's single international airport located in Dabolim, 4 km from the nearby city of Vasco da Gama, 23 km from Margao, and about 30 km from the state capital Panjim. It operates as a civil enclave in a military airbase named INS Hansa.

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