Haj pilgrims airplane skids

Airplane carrying haj pilgrims skids at Juanda Airport

INDONESIA: A Saudi Arabian airplane carrying Indonesian haj pilgrims from Bangkalan district, Madura island, and from elsewhere in East Java province, skidded on the runway at Juanda Airport at 4 a.m. on Saturday.

A Juanda Airport official said the incident occurred as the plane was about to take off from the airport. He said no casualties were reported in the incident but the departure of the flight was delayed by four hours.

"Some 450 haj pilgrims had to leave the airplane and continue the journey with another airplane from the same airline," said Syaiful Islam, one of officials of a haj travel agency.

He said the plane then took off again at 8:15 a.m. -- JP