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.

When the plane made its rough landing, Mumbai’s suburbs, where the airport is situated, had just been hit with 4.5 inches of rain, as reported by the India Meteorological Department.

Air India flight AI2744, traveling from Kochi, India, swerved off the main runway into an unpaved section before finally stopping at a taxiway, according to a Times of India report.

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 representative stated: “Flight AI2744, on its route from Kochi to Mumbai on July 21, 2025, encountered intense rainfall during landing, which led to a runway excursion upon 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 were safe following the incident, 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, recently 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 reads.

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