Kathmandu, Aug 15 (IANS): The Air India Kathmandu-Delhi flight encountered technical glitches before taking off from the Kathmandu airport on Tuesday.

Tribhuvan International Airport spokesman Subas Jha said that there was a problem with the landing gear of the airplane that was about to take off from the runway.

The Air India-216 was all set to depart from Kathmandu airport at 4:10 am. The plane was stuck at the airport due to the wheel locked.

After facing technical glitches, the plane was pulled off the runway by the tractors and parked in the parking lot.

The plane was carrying 179 passengers who were later offloaded from the plane.

Two international and five domestic flights were kept on hold in the sky after the Air India plane was stuck in the taxiway.

The airport was halted for one hour and after the Air India plane was removed from the taxiway to the parking lot, the regular operations at the airport resumed.

Jha said that the plane encountered technical glitches once it reached the taxiway. “The technical examination of the Air India plane will be carried out and then only it will be decided whether the passengers will be sent from the same plane or not,” he said.