24th March 2015, One of India's biggest defence cargo planes landed on the tiny runway at the Juhu Airport in Mumbai this morning.
The Hercules C130J was flown to Juhu as an exercise to see if the airport in the western suburbs of Mumbai could be used in case the city's main airport is attacked.
The massive transport plane, used to carry troops and supplies, stood at Juhu for 10 minutes before flying out.
Most aircraft of this size require a runway with conventional dimensions of a fully functional airport, but the Hercules can land on much shorter lengths of unpaved or paved runways. The runway at the Juhu aerodrome is 3750 feet long, very short compared to the 12008 feet long runway at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).
The Hercules C130J has earlier, in August 2013, landed at the runway at Daulat Baig Oldie in Ladakh, one of the highest and most inhospitable runways the world over.