MUMBAI, March 6: Several flights of Indian Airlines and Jet Airways hovered over the domestic airport for over one-and-a-half hours after stray dogs invaded the runway this evening.At least four flights of Indian Airlines (IA) were delayed and a ``series of delays'' were reported by Jet Airways too. Even after the runway was cleared, there was chaos at the airport with several flights arriving together. Both incoming and outgoing flight schedules remained disrupted till late evening. Sources said that the situation would limp back to normalcy only by tomorrow morning.The presence of dogs was first reported by an IA flight IC 150 at 3.50 pm, which was asked by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) to abort landing. After hovering over the runway for about 15 minutes, the commander sought priority as he was running out of fuel. The aircraft was finally given clearance to land at 4.40 pm. Flight no IC-632 from Karachi was delayed by 50 minutes and landed at 4.10 pm. Flight no 110 from Bangalore, expected to arriveat 3.35 pm, was finally given clearance to land at 4.00 pm. Flight no IC 196 from Jodhpur, was delayed by 30 minutes and could land only at 5.20 pm.The passengers of Jet Airways flight no 352 from Delhi were informed by their commander that the plane could not land as dogs were on the runway. ``At the time of boarding the plane at Delhi at 1.55 pm, we were told by the commander that the flight time would be one-and-a-half hours,'' a hapless passenger said. ``After hovering over Mumbai for nearly the same time, the aircraft landed at 5 pm,'' he added. ``We saw three jeeps of the AAI emitting heavy smoke beside the runway when we disembarked . the management of India's busiest airport were apparently busy chasing away the dogs,'' another passenger remarked.When contacted, Airport Director P S Nair denied that anything of this sort happened. ``This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,'' he said, adding that ``about three to four flights being asked to hold landing by the ATC could be due toany number of valid technical reasons.your information is completely false'' he maintained.He said the Mumbai airport had issued a NOTAM (notice to airmen) that the runway would be closed for routine maintenance from 1.30 pm to 3.15 pm. ``Naturally, no flight operations were possible during that time,'' he said. He added that four international flights and nine domestic flights operated between 3.40 pm to 4.30 pm. ``The commander of Air India flight no AI 306 informed the ATCs about a dog crossing over the runway. Our ground safety staff immediately went and cleared the runway in about two minutes,'' he said, but failed to explain why several flights were delayed.About 150 acres of airport land is encroached upon by unauthorised slums and the area resembles a dumping ground for garbage and other obnoxious wastes which attracts stray dogs and other animals.
