An Air India Express flight operating from Hyderabad to Phuket experienced a hard landing earlier today, leading to damage to the aircraft’s nose landing gear and forcing the temporary closure of the runway at Phuket International Airport.
Air India Express IX938 bumps on landing in Phuket
The incident involved flight IX938, operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8, which had departed Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on its scheduled service to Phuket. The aircraft landed in Phuket late in the morning local time, but upon touchdown, it suffered a hard landing, resulting in damage to its nose landing gear assembly.
Images and videos circulating online show the aircraft stranded on the runway with visible damage around the nose gear area. Early reports indicate that the nose wheel assembly was compromised during the landing sequence, preventing the aircraft from taxiing off the runway under its own power. The aircraft involved in the incident reportedly has the registration VT-BWQ and is part of the airline’s growing fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft used on short- and medium-haul international routes.
HARD LANDING grounds Phuket Airport & closes runway
Air India Express seen in a ROUGH touch down 'suffered nose wheel issue' — reports pic.twitter.com/fbTkXMxVme
— RT (@RT_com) March 11, 2026
The aircraft was carrying more than 130 passengers along with crew members. All passengers were safely disembarked after the aircraft came to a stop, and there have been no reports of injuries. The crew is understood to have followed standard safety procedures after the aircraft came to a stop on the runway.
Because the aircraft remained disabled on the runway, authorities at Phuket International Airport had to temporarily suspend runway operations while recovery teams worked to remove the aircraft and inspect the runway surface. A NOTAM was issued shortly after the incident, announcing the closure of the runway and bringing flight movements at the airport to a halt.
The closure had a cascading effect on flight operations at Phuket, one of Thailand’s busiest leisure gateways and an increasingly popular destination for Indian travellers. Several inbound flights were placed in holding patterns or diverted to alternate airports while airport authorities worked to clear the runway. Initial estimates suggested the runway could remain unavailable for roughly five to six hours while engineers assessed the aircraft and inspected the runway for any debris or structural damage.
In a brief statement following the incident, Air India Express confirmed that the aircraft experienced a nose-wheel issue after landing in Phuket and reiterated that all passengers and crew members were safe. The airline said the aircraft would undergo detailed technical checks following the incident.
A new statement issued at 1730 hours Indian Standard Time mentioned that the airport was cleared.
“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.”
-An Air India Express spokesperson
In aviation terms, a “hard landing” refers to a touchdown where the aircraft contacts the runway with a higher-than-normal vertical descent rate. While aircraft are designed to tolerate such events within certain limits, significant hard landings can place stress on landing gear components and airframe structures, which is why such aircraft are typically taken out of service for detailed engineering inspections.
At Phuket airport, the incident caused several hours of operational disruption before normal traffic could gradually resume, once the aircraft was moved and the runway cleared.
The exact circumstances leading to the hard landing are expected to be examined through technical inspections and operational reviews, which will determine whether weather conditions, operational factors, or a mechanical issue contributed to the event.
Bottomline
An Air India Express flight from Hyderabad experienced a hard landing in Phuket earlier today, damaging the aircraft’s nose landing gear and forcing the temporary closure of Phuket Airport’s runway for several hours. All passengers and crew members were reported safe, while the aircraft will now undergo a detailed technical inspection before returning to service.
What do you make of this incident of a bumpy landing by Air India Express in Phuket? It all looked fine until it wasn’t.
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