Near-misses on tarmac cause concern

Mumbai: With runway repairs starting on Tuesday, operations at Mumbai airport are likely to get more chaotic, what with drainage repair work also in progress and certain taxiways unavailable.
This month itself there have been at least two close calls on the ground. In one case, a fire engine crossed a runway just as an aircraft was readying for takeoff. In another, an aircraft that was on its way to the apron was hit by a truck.
Though damage was minimal in both cases, the incidents raise questions about the level of safety in ground operations.
At around 9:40pm on October 2, an IndiGo Airlines flight from Mumbai to Bangalore (6E 415) was on runway 27 of 09:27 for takeoff.At that time, a passenger coach of Jet Airways caught fire near gate 8 of the old airport terminal at Kalina.
"The driver had called the fire brigade and a fire tender crossed the runway to reach the spot," said an official of Mumbai International Airport Limited (Mial), the company that runs the airport. "The plane was just minutes from takeoff. Luckily, an air traffic control (ATC) official saw the vehicle crossing the runway and immediately alerted the pilot."
On October 3, an al-Jazeera Airways flight from Kuwait to Mumbai (J9 606) landed in Mumbai at about 2:50am.The aircraft was on its way to the international apron when a catering truck suddenly came along and hit its left wing.
28/10/09 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports Oct 2009, Safety Oct 2009