New Delhi: Landing at the wrong airport of the destination city is a rare occurrence in aviation. An Air India aircraft came close to achieving this dubious distinction on Tuesday when it was about to land in Melbourne.
Strong winds made the state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner drift from the assigned flight path to the approach path of a nearby airport. A last-minute alert from the air traffic control of the other airport made the pilot change course and head to the main Melbourne airport.
This happened when AI 301 was flying from Sydney to Melbourne on Tuesday on its way back to Delhi. "Very strong winds (25-30 knots) were blowing at that time and the ATC of the main Melbourne airport gave visual approach of the runway where it was supposed to land to the AI pilots. The pilots saw another runway and confirmed to the ATC that they had 'field in sight'. They continued approach to that runway," said sources.
16/01/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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Strong winds made the state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner drift from the assigned flight path to the approach path of a nearby airport. A last-minute alert from the air traffic control of the other airport made the pilot change course and head to the main Melbourne airport.
This happened when AI 301 was flying from Sydney to Melbourne on Tuesday on its way back to Delhi. "Very strong winds (25-30 knots) were blowing at that time and the ATC of the main Melbourne airport gave visual approach of the runway where it was supposed to land to the AI pilots. The pilots saw another runway and confirmed to the ATC that they had 'field in sight'. They continued approach to that runway," said sources.
16/01/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
