Flight services from Chennai were briefly disrupted on Friday when a cargo aircraft got stuck at the main runway of the domestic airport after its nose portion fell off while landing.
The ATR aircraft belonging to First Flight Couriers met with the mishap while landing in Chennai at 0850 hours, airport sources said.
The pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, escaped unhurt.
Though the nose portion fell off, the pilot managed to stop the aircraft on the main runway.
Later, sparks were noticed in its engine and fire tenders rushed to the spot and prevented the aircraft from catching fire, they said.
The sources had earlier said that the aircraft had caught fire.
The aircraft was taxied to the cargo terminal located at the old wing of the airport with the help of engineers and ground support staff of the 'Indian' airlines, who had called off their nation-wide strike on Thursday.
The sources said the cargo in the aircraft was not damaged. The flight had arrived in Chennai from Mumbai after a brief stop-over in Bangalore.
Since the aircraft was parked for some time on the main runway of the domestic airport, all incoming and outgoing flights were delayed by 10 to 20 minutes till around 1100 hours, the sources said.
