Jeep invades runway, holds up air traffic

Mumbai: Animals are known to enter runways and disrupt flight operations in airfields across India. But on Tuesday, it was not a dog, but a jeep, that held up traffic at the Mumbai airport.
The jeep drove into one of the operational runways in the afternoon, only to cross it casually even as aircraft lined up for take off and landing waited for the driver to recover his senses and vacate the strip.
According to airport sources, the runway intrusion occurred around 11.30 am when a driver with Larsen and Toubro—which is carrying out work at the Mumbai airport—drove into runway 14-32. "There was no reason for him to be anywhere close to the runway," said a spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL), adding that the pilot of an Air India aircraft readying for take-off noticed the jeep and alerted the air traffic control (ATC).
By this time, the ATC too had spotted the intruder and radioed the runway safety officers about it. "An aircraft that was going to land was told to do a go-around and departures had to be held up for a while," said an air traffic controller.
"It is a serious matter and we have confiscated his driving licence. We will take up the matter with L&T in a meeting on Wednesday. We will ask them to put in place measures to prevent such incidents in future," the MIAL official said.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is investigating the matter.
21/05/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports May 2008, Safety May 2008