'Statue delaying Delhi flights'

Delhi: Can the massive flight delays of the past few days at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi be brushed aside as an act of God? Well, some airport officials have told MiD DAY that an 8-ft tall statue of Lord Shiva near the mouth of the new runway is one of the reasons for travellers' woes.
Pilots, especially those from foreign countries, are jittery in landing their aircraft on the new runway which results in delay in aircraft movement at the airport as only one runway remains open for use, further delaying the schedule of all the arrival and departure flights.
The National Facilitation Committee on airport-related matters headed by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar, in June 8, 2010, had asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to either relocate the statue, or lower its height in accordance with the no-objection certificate (NOC) issued to them in 1993.
"Domestic as well as international pilots prefer to land in dense fog conditions on the old runway 28/10. Though the new runway is longer in size it witnesses more fog. The angle of descent increases on the runway due to the Shiva statue and it gets shorter by more than 3 km due to this. Also taxiing time during fog increases appreciably," said a senior airport official.
30/12/10 Surender Sharma/MiD DAY

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010, Safety Dec 2010