India, April 18 -- Flight operations at Pune airport began returning to normal from Saturday morning after a late-night runway blockage caused by an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft incident disrupted services for several hours, leading to widespread cancellations, delays and diversions.

Departures resumed from 7.30am, followed by arrivals from 8am, with authorities indicating that air traffic would stabilise progressively through the day after emergency repair work was completed on priority.

The disruption began around 10.25pm on Friday when a fighter aircraft suffered an undercarriage failure while landing, rendering the runway unusable. According to IAF Air Traffic Control, it took nearly four to five hours to clear the stranded aircr...