A fighter jet’s fuel tank got detached while taking off and caused a fire on the runway of the Goa airport on Saturday, the spokesperson of the Indian Navy tweeted. The MiG 29K fighter jet that dropped the fuel tank is safe.
Flight operations at the airport were temporarily suspended in view of the incident, which took place around 2 pm. The airport resumed operations soon after, the spokesperson said.
The Goa airport is used for civilian as well as military aircraft. A section of the main runway of the airport caught fire after the drop tank fell from the jet during take-off, Navy spokesperson Captain DK Sharma said, according to PTI.
“These are external fuel tanks outfitted to aircraft in order to enable them to cover more distance,” the spokesperson told IANS. “One such tank attached to a MiG-29K got jettisoned off the jet during a sortie and landed on the runway.”
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