New Delhi, March 11 -- An Air India Express Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, with 138 people onboard, lost both its nose wheels after a suspected hard landing at Phuket airport on Wednesday, leaving the aircraft stranded on the runway for hours and forcing a temporary halt to airport operations, officials aware of the matter said. The aircraft VT-BWQ operated the flight IX938 from Hyderabad to Phuket. A hard landing in aviation is when an aircraft touches down on the runway with a higher than normal vertical speed. It could not be immediately ascertained for how many hours the aircraft was stuck on the runway, as well as for how long the airport operations were suspended. "The aircraft involved in a hard landing incident with a bounce on runway 9 at the Phuket airport was stuck on the runway while both its nose wheels detached during touchdown," an official said, adding that "no passengers or crew on board were injured." Passengers were deplaned and taken to the terminal building. There was no injury to any person, another official added. "The nose wheels have been installed on the aircraft involved in the incident at Phuket airport, allowing normal airport operations to resume," the airline said in a statement. "We apologise for the incident, which will be investigated in accordance with established procedures." According to Flightradar24, a live flight tracking website, the aircraft took off at 6.42 am, about 30 minutes after its scheduled departure time, and landed in Phuket at 11.24am, about 20 minutes before its expected time. "Following the incident, the two pilots were de-rostered pending investigation," the official added....