The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), closed since 10 Thursday night due to accident of a Malindo Air plane, has been back in operation for domestic flights from nine Friday morning.
Deputy General Manager of TIA Raj Kumar Chhetri said operation of domestic flights has been resumed from the runway on the northern side as smaller planes don't need a long runway.
It will still take some time for resumption of international flights though. The TIA administration said it may resume from noon.
International flights arriving to Kathmandu have been sent back while those scheduled to take off from the TIA have been stranded at the airport since the accident.
Efforts are on to remove the Malindo airplane from the runway since it suffered a runway excursion last night but to no avail. Chhetri said it may still take a few hours to remove the plane.
A technician deployed at the TIA said the plane can be towed with help of ropes and a crane is not needed. "We are towing the plane with ropes now. It may still take 3-4 hours but we don’t need a crane. We can tow it with help of ropes as it is a small plane but it will take time," the technician elaborated.
The TIA has been closed since Thursday night after the Malindo plane scheduled to fly to to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia skidded off the runway after the pilots aborted takeoff at the final moment on seeing an error at the monitor inside the cockpit.
There were 139 people, including 4 crew members, on board. There was no casualty.
