Bangkok, March 12 -- An aircraft operated by Indian carrier Air India Express encountered an incident while landing at Phuket International Airport in Thailand on March 11, forcing authorities to close the runway for about six hours and causing significant flight disruptions. All passengers and crew were reported safe.

The aircraft involved is a Boeing 737-800, registration number VT-BWQ, operating a flight from Hyderabad, India. The plane was scheduled to land at Phuket at 11:40 local time but touched down 16 minutes ahead of schedule. There were seven crew members, 131 passengers and two infants on board.

Preliminary findings indicated that the aircraft made a hard landing, resulting in damage to the landing gear and nose gear assembl...