New Delhi/Hyderabad: An Hyderabad-Phuket Air India Express Boeing 737 MAX plane, with 138 people on board, made a hard landing at Phuket airport on Wednesday morning. The aircraft reportedly bounced once after the hard touchdown and then, on the second contact with the runway, both the nose wheels got detached. It then got stuck on the runway, leading to the airport being closed for hours, for required checks of its sole airstrip.No one on board was injured. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is in touch with Thailand aviation authorities. The aircraft is grounded there, and the airline will send its engineers to repair the same, sources said.The flight with 132 passengers and six crew members had taken off from Hyderabad at 6.23 am and landed at 11.25 am (all timings local).A video of the aircraft’s descent, shot from inside by one of the passengers and shared on X, showed the plane suddenly losing balance due to the hard landing — spreading panic among fliers. Children can be heard shrieking in the 32-second shaky clip, while some other passengers were gasping in fear.“I was filming our landing on Air India Express flight IX 938 from Hyderabad to Phuket when we hit the runway really hard. It was such a bad landing that you could actually smell something burning inside the plane. I think it’s with the front wheel,” the passenger wrote in the post that was widely circulated throughout the day.Responding to it, the airline posted an apology regretting the incident.At around 5 pm (IST) on Wednesday, flight tracking site, Flightradar24, posted on X: “Phuket International’s sole runway remains closed almost seven hours after Air India Express flight IX938 suffered severe nose wheel damage after a hard landing. So far, 20 flights have been diverted to other airports. The runway is currently set to open in another 3.5 hours—at 14:00 UTC (21:00 local time).”Around 5.30 pm, AI Express released a statement saying: “The nose wheels have been installed on the aircraft involved in the incident at Phuket airport, allowing normal airport operations to resume. We apologise for the incident, which will be investigated in accordance with established procedures.” Previously, an airline spokesperson had confirmed the incident. “Our Hyderabad-Phuket flight on March 11 experienced an issue with the nose wheel at Phuket airport. The crew followed all standard protocols, and guests were deplaned. We thank our guests, the Phuket airport authorities, and all stakeholders for their cooperation,” the official said.A senior DGCA official said, “on March 8, 2026, both the nose wheels were replaced as routine maintenance”.“The aircraft (VT-BWQ) operating flight IX 938 was involved in a suspected hard landing with bounce while landing at runway 09, Phuket. Passengers were deplaned on the runway and taken to the terminal building. The aircraft was towed to the bay…Investigation will be carried out by appropriate authority after consultation with Thailand Aviation Investigation Authorities, Thailand being the state of occurrence,” the official added.
