Third runway light on blink, flights delayed

New Delhi: The third runway at the IGI Airport acted up once more as a light near its touchdown zone got damaged and the runway had to be closed for about half an hour on Thursday afternoon. Since the main runway was under maintenance at this point of time, there were no operations for about 45 minutes, leading to massive delays in the afternoon and evening, one diversion and a few go-rounds. The runways were made available just in time for a Gulf Air flight coming in from Bahrain as it landed dangerously low on fuel.
A frequently changing wind direction also added to the problem as air traffic control officials were left wondering which runway was to be put to what use when and in an hour, the landing and take-off operations changed runways several times.
According to sources, a fault was noticed in the touchdown light on runway 11 around 2pm. ATC immediately closed the runway for use while engineers attended to the problem. The runway was made operational again only about 3 pm. The main runway 28/10 was also not available during this time as it had been taken up for routine maintenance at 1.45pm. That was handed over to ATC around 2.45pm.
During this time, three flights were asked to go-round while the runway light was repaired. These included Spice Jet flight SG 234, Jet Airways flight 9W 606 and a Gulf Air flight GF 134. Once the runways became operational, SG 234 landed on the main runway and 9W 606 on the new runway. A local standby was declared during the landing of GF 134 as it was short on fuel. It finally landed safely on the main runway around 2.50pm. An Indigo flight, 6E 102 from Banglore to Delhi was diverted to Jaipur during this time.
17/07/09 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2009