Another scare on twin runways

New Delhi: The IGI Airport will soon have three runways. But, it seems some pilots have trouble landing on the right airstrip even now when the place has only two of them. In a rare double whammy, a SpiceJet plane landed on the wrong runway some time back - just three days short of the first anniversary of a similar mistake it had made last year.
This time, the plane was supposed to land on the secondary runway while it ended up on the main one on June 9. Last year, on June 12, the airline's plane was supposed to land on the main runway and it ended up on the secondary one. Luckily for passengers, both times there was no other plane or vehicle parked that could have led to a disaster. Airport sources say this time the main runway was closed for maintenance for some time on June 9. "The SpiceJet aircraft was asked to approach for landing on the secondary runway. Meanwhile, the main runway was made available for aircraft movement minutes before this one touched down. Luckily, no aircraft was there when the plane wrongly touched down on runway," said highly placed sources. On its part, the airline admitted the wrong landings but gave its reason too. "There has been an error on part of the pilot but the lead-in-light or sequencing lights which guide a plane down leave much to be desired for at IGI. We have recommended some changes in the infrastructure of lights," said Jatti Dhillon, SpiceJet's VP (flight operations). Last time both the pilots were Indians while this year they they were from abroad.
10/08/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008, Safety Aug 2008, SpiceJet Aug 2008