Bahrain International Airport reopened on Saturday after being shut down for more than two hours following a minor accident involving a Afghanistan-bound DHL cargo aircraft.

According to airport officials, the aircraft’s engine caught fire during takeoff thus resulting in a minor damage to the runway.

As a precautionary measure, all incoming flights were diverted to neighbouring airports for about two-and-a-half hours till the main runway began operating, according to the Bahrain Airport Company (BAC), which is incharge of management and operation of the kingdom's airport.

The emergency procedures were immediately initiated, including the safe evacuation of all seven crew on board and the successfully containment of the fire, the BAC said in a statement.

Dr Osama Al Ali, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company said, "The Engine 2 of the DHL A300 cargo plane had caught fire during takeoff. After the aircraft’s captain reported the fault to the Air Traffic Control, the fire brigade at airport and Ministry of Interior’s Civil Defence and security forces were immediately on hand to deal with the situation, resulting in the aircraft’s crew of seven being safely evacuated."

"Engineers and technicians from the Airport Engineering Division were also called in to deal with the runway damage, whilst airside operations staff moved the aircraft off the runway, removed oil and debris off the airfield," he added.

Owing to the mishap, all aircraft movement on the runway was halted from 7:22am to 10am (local time) as per international practice.

"The officials at the Air Traffic Control co-ordinated with neighboring airports to receive Bahrain bound flights, diverting eight incoming flights to Damam International Airport, five flights to Doha International Airport and one flight to Abu Dhabi International Airport," Dr Al Ali said.

He lauded the staff of both the emergency services and Civil Aviation Affairs and Airport for their speed in dealing with not only the emergency, but the efficiency of returning the Airport to normal working order.

“BAC, Civil Aviation Affairs and emergency services personnel performed their roles superbly today dealing with a difficult and potential dangerous situation with total professionalism and dedication. This was a textbook emergency response operation, which ensured the safe return of seven crew members, as well as the successfully rerouting of all incoming flights and the return of the airport to full working order within two and a half hours," he remarked.

" I am extremely grateful to all those involved, which demonstrated not only the robustness of the airport’s safety procedures, but the skill of the Airport’s combined staff,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service