Silchar, March 7: An Airbus carrying 98 security personnel overshot the runway by a kilometre while landing in Lengpui airport near Aizawl yesterday, but managed to avoid a rerun of the Mangalore airport disaster by screeching to a halt just in time.

The Air India plane coming from Calcutta touched down on the 2.5km runway a kilometre from its scheduled mark and had just 1.5km to manoeuvre a halt.

A source in the Airport Authority of India said a few passengers suffered minor injuries but two of the aeroplane’s tyres burst under the impact.

He said visibility at the airport was “fine and clear” and the authorities had permitted the pilots to land on the basis of visual aids, as the instrumental landing system is not fully operational yet.

The civil construction for the instrumental landing system equipment, a weather monitoring aid, at Lengpui airport is likely to be completed next month.

The fund for the equipment — Rs 51 crore — is being provided by DoNER.

A source said the Airbus would be repaired by the engineers of Air India by tomorrow. An inquiry will also be conducted by the director general of the civil aviation.

Bails: Two Assam University professors — Ramendu Bhattacharjee, professor of physics and dean of students’ welfare, and Manabendra Dutta Choudhury, professor in the department of life sciences and proctor, who had allegedly manhandled mediapersons on the campus on February 25, were granted bail by Silchar Sadar police station last night.

The two had allegedly mistreated the newspersons when they had gone to cover a students’ rally demanding improvement of hostel facilities.