AN AIR India plane skidded off the runway and sustained damage as it landed at Mumbai International Airport amid heavy rain on Monday.

Three tyres on the Airbus A320 burst, the underside of an engine was damaged and the runway had to be shut, according to reports.

At the time of the plane’s bumpy landing, Mumbai’s suburbs – where the airport is located – were drenched by 4.5 inches of rain, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). 

Air India flight AI2744, which had flown from the Indian city of Kochi, veered off the main runway onto an unpaved area before coming to a stop at a taxiway, Times of India reports.

The outer casing of the plane’s engine – known as the cowling – was damaged and three tyres burst, the newspaper adds.

TV footage from NDTV and India Today reveals a number of dents on the cowling.

An Air India spokesperson said: “Flight AI2744, operating from Kochi to Mumbai on 21 July 2025, experienced heavy rain during landing, resulting in a runway excursion after touchdown.

“The aircraft taxied safely to the gate and all passengers and crew members have since disembarked. The aircraft has been grounded for checks.

“The safety of passengers and crew remain our top priority.”

The Mumbai airport said in a statement that there were “minor damages reported to the airport’s primary runway” as a result of a “runway excursion”.

It said that a secondary runway had been “activated” to ensure operational continuity.

Though the Mumbai airport has two intersecting runways, only one operates at a time – making it effectively a single-runway airport.

All passengers and crew are safe following the jet’s landing, the airport added.

It comes as Air India has faced scrutiny after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad last month, killing 260 people.

All but one of the 242 passengers and crew died, with Vishwash Ramesh, 40, the only survivor.

Another 19 people were killed on the ground in Ahmedabad.

A 15-page preliminary report, released by Indian authorities, reveals that switches controlling the engines’ fuel supply were moved from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’,

“The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off,” the report wrote.

This possibly triggered a loss of thrust, which resulted in the jet crashing into a medical college.