Safety takes a beating at Chennai airport

Chennai: Two near-collisions at Chennai airport this week due to runway incursions by aircraft raise serious questions on the level of pilots' adherence to safety parameters and the efficacy of monitoring systems at the aerodrome.
In both incidents, one on Wednesday and the other on Sunday, it was Saudia airline's aircraft that attempted to jump queue.
The airline's B747 aircraft with 360 passengers on-board almost entered the runway without ATC clearance on Wednesday after a Jet Airways flight from Hyderabad was cleared for landing, while on Sunday another Saudia aircraft of the same capacity crossed over the holding point, delaying by half an hour the arrival of a Jet flight from Madurai, which had been cleared to land.
An Air India pilot, who did not want to be named, attributed such incidents to "miscommunication between controller and pilot, improper use of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) phraseology, readback and hearback errors, pilots ignoring ATC instructions and lack of knowledge of operational area among airport staff."
However, an airport official pointed fingers at shortage of technical experts in the mandatory 'apron safety' and 'runway incursion' committees.
23/10/10 Mamta Todi/ExpressBuzz

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Categories: airports Oct 2010, Safety Oct 2010