Mumbai airport seems riskier on Tuesdays

Mumbai: The shortened-runway operations on Tuesday at the Mumbai airport are proving dangerous for airlines as well as passengers. Less than half the normal distance is available for landing and take-off (only smaller aircraft are allowed), which seems clearly inadequate as two back-to-back air mishaps on Tuesday, preceded by a similar incident last week, indicate.
On Tuesday, even as the city experienced sudden showers, a Kingfisher aircraft skidded off the runway while taxiing, getting stuck in a grassy patch. Just four minutes earlier, at 4.32pm, Air India's Goa-Mumbai IC 164 bounced twice before landing on the edge of the runway.
What ensued was a blame-game between the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) and the Mumbai airport operator. DGCA said it had given clear instructions to Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to suspend shortened runway operations under wet conditions.
The operator, however, said that it did not receive any such intimation. The airlines, however, have said that they were informed by the DGCA but with the rider that operations could continue if the senior-most pilots (for short runway operations) were deployed for the flights. As of now, there is no talk of suspending operations on Tuesday, said DGCA sources.
The lack of clarity on dos and don'ts, however, has inconvenienced - and endangered - passengers and ground staff at the Mumbai airport over the last two Tuesdays, since the re-construction of the intersection point of the cross-runways began on October 27.
11/11/09 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Air India Domestic Nov 2009, Airports Nov 2009, Kingfisher Nov 2009, NACIL Nov 2009, Safety Nov 2009