Colombo: Sri Lanka's only international airport re-opened today (Feb 5, 2004) after being shut for nearly 10 hours following the crash-landing of a cargo plane that damaged the runway, an airport official said.

There were no casualties, but the Bandaranaike International Airport was closed till 08:15 hours (07:40 hours IST) to allow the clearing of the wreckage of the IL-18 cargo plane from the runway, an official said.

He said the aircraft operated by Expo Aviation, a Sri Lankan carrier, was returning to Colombo with cargo from Dubai when its nose wheel failed to open just before landing late last night.

The crash-landing damaged 12 runway lights and three taxi-way lights, officials said, adding that the damage to the runway surface was minimum. The aircraft's left engines were completely damaged as was its undercarriage.

"The aircraft was in one piece, but it was sitting on the middle of the runway," the official said. "It took time to pull it out of the way to a safe area and then repair damaged runway lights."

In-bound flights were diverted to Chennai airport while flights to Colombo from Singapore and Thailand did not take off because of the closure of the runway, officials said.

The first to operate after the reopening was a Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Zurich which landed at 08:18 hours, airport officials said.

Sri Lanka's Civil Aviation authorities began a probe into the incident.