Grass near runway catches fire at Mumbai airport

Mumbai: Flight operations at Mumbai airport were suspended for 11 minutes on Friday a patch of grass near the runway caught fire when crackers were being burst to scare birds away.
The incident occurred around 1.30pm when "bird scarers" were bursting fire crackers -one of the methods used at the airport to keep birds off the flight path to scare away birds flying near the runway. "The grass lit up and as the fire spread, the runway had to be closed for flight operations till the blaze was doused," said a source.
Confirming the incident, a Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said that flight operations on the lone operational runway 14-32 were suspended for 11 minutes. The main runway, 09-27, is closed for eight hours, 9am onwards, for the construction of a rapid-exit taxiway. As both the runways were closed, one arriving aircraft had to hold for landing while some flight operations were affected in the afternoon.
04/02/12 Times of India

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Categories: airports Feb 2012, Safety Feb 2012