Monkeys walk the runway, delay landing at city airport

Ahemdabad: A group of monkeys decided to enjoy an evening walk on the Sardar Patel international airport runway on Monday, forcing airport officials to delay landing of an Air India flight coming from Mumbai. "The flight, with 45 passengers on board, was about to land at the Ahmedabad airport at 5.54 pm. But when it was nearing the runway, it didn't get permission to land as monkeys were having a free run on the runway. The flight finally landed at 6.20 pm," said an Ahmedabad airport source.
The domestic and international flight schedules at the Ahmedabad airport have already gone for a toss as the runway is closed for repair work between 10.30 am and 5 pm.
Senior airport officials confirmed they were battling with the growing simian menace at the airport, but denied that the delay of flights was because of the monkeys on the runway.
However, people at the international airport said that they spotted the flight flying over Ahmedabad airport at around 6 pm and wondered why it was denied permission to land. Sources said that to calm the passengers, the captain of the plane had actually announced that they were not landing as monkeys were on the runway.
04/04/11 Ankur Jain/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2011