On Wednesday morning, the Turkish Airlines jet skidded off the runway with 224 people on board and came to rest with the left landing gear on the grassy shoulder and the right one on the runway, restricting all international flights.

The International Civil Aviation Organization defines runway incursion as: “Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft.” Amid the risk that an airplane taking off or landing will collide with the object, the airport authorities closed the airport immediately after the incident. The airport has been closed for a second consecutive day on Thursday, forcing hundreds of travellers stranded.

An estimated 30,000 passengers of international flights have been stranded until Thursday.

Currently, the TIA is served by 25 international airlines, most of them operating double daily flights. As the volume of passengers piles up, Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), said the airport would be opened 24 hours from Friday onwards to ease the pressure.

“It is a major disaster in the 63-year history of the TIA—the country’s sole international airport with a single approach system—and we are working on war footing to restore the services,” Suman told a press conference on Thursday noon.

As Nepal lacks the heavy machinery required to relocate the jet, the government had asked India for help. An Indian Air Force plane left Delhi at 11:07 am with the removal kit weighing 7.5 tonnes. The plane with 25 people, including 11 technical crew from Air India, landed from the north point (Bouddha side) at 1:07 pm.

The stranded aircraft has reduced the usable length of TIA runway to only about 5,000 feet, making it impossible for any commercial aircraft to land.

Around 100 people have been working since 2 pm

on Thursday to tow the aircraft. “Works will continue all night.”