Highway in the sky

New Delhi: On Wednesday and Thursday, the Delhi airport could have been mistaken for Delhi roads. On these two days, around 300 passengers narrowly escaped serious mishaps. On Wednesday, a mishap was averted at the Delhi Airport, after a Jet Airways aircraft — with nearly 150 passengers on board — had to abort landing at the last moment because another aircraft was present on the runway.
The incident happened around 9pm, when the Jet Airways flight from Mumbai (9W 309) was descending to land on the runway of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The airport at that moment was witnessing heavy congestion due to bad weather conditions caused by strong wind movement.
As the aircraft was preparing to land, the pilot found movement on the runway and informed the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC). The ‘movement’ was another aircraft, of an international airline, which was supposed to take off from the runway but couldn’t do so because of strong winds. It was trying to vacate the runway.
With the runway not clear, the ATC asked the Jet pilot to abort landing and make a 'go-around'. The aircraft climbed up again and landed later after hovering for some time.
Meanwhile, an Emirates flight carrying 153 passengers could not land at the IGI airport due to unstable wind, which resulted in air pressure on Thursday. Flight EK516, from Dubai, was scheduled to land at 2.40 pm.
19/05/11 Hindustan Times

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Categories: Airports May 2011, Foreign May 2011, Jet Airways May 2011, Safety May 2011