Croatia Airlines, Airbus A319 reg. 9A-CTI, on a flight OU419 from Frankfurt to Dubrovnik landed on runway 29 at 20:35 local time. After coming to complete stop, the plane could not leave the runway on its own so ground equipment for pushing and towing the aircraft was requested. According to the information available to AvioRadar,nose steering wheel tillerwas blocked.
The Wizz Air plane from Warsaw, which was on approach for runway 11, was instructed by the Air Traffic Control to abort the approach and make a go-around, while an easyJet plane from Manchester went in holding until the runway was cleared.
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The Airbus was towed off the runway after 10 minutes and the traffic at Dubrovnik Airport resumed right after.
At 11:10 p.m. the plane took off to Zagreb on a flight OU669, after being towed to runway 29 by a ground towing vehicle. After landing on RWY 04 in Zagreb, the plane was again met by a towing vehicle and dragged to the parking position. There were passengers on the flight to Zagreb, but Croatia Airlines emphasizes for Avioradar that everything was operated according to the procedures and regulations, ie the Minimum Equipment List (MEL).
During the night the problem was fixed and the aircraft was returned to regular traffic on flight OU512 to Dublin.
