The situation is as spectacular as it is annoying for Montpellier airport. No plane has landed on the tarmac or taken off since the night of Friday to Saturday a freight plane ended its landing by diving into the Mauguio pond located at the end of the runway.
“I cannot yet give you a precise timetable, we hope in any case that at the beginning of next week the flights can resume”, indicated this Sunday the prefect of Hérault. Hugues Moutouh. He spoke on the runways of the airport where “complex” operations to clear the damaged plane began this Sunday with a lot of lifting and earthmoving equipment.
Rain “determining element”
The state representative confirmed that the aircraft, which was transporting mail, is indeed a Boeing 737 from the West Atlantic company which obviously “did not succeed in braking sufficiently”. He landed in Montpellier every night at the same time, around 2:30 am.
Hugues Moutouh also indicated that the three people on board at the time of the accident are unscathed and that, pending investigations, the rain may have played “a determining role” in the runway excursion.
Montpellier airport sees 197,000 passengers pass through per month during the summer period.