IA flight gets a scare while landing

Just seconds before the aircraft was set to land, senior training pilot Captain R S Sandhu spotted an aircraft on the runway. The flight was at a height of 200 feet at that time. Captain Sandhu informed the Air Traffic Control ATC and asked permission for a go-round, which was immediately granted.

Sandhu apologised to the passengers on board about the incident and the plane landed half-an-hour late.nbsp;

It was later found that a private Beechcraft, with call sign VT CLE, had landed just minutes before the Indian Airlines flight was scheduled to land, and had not cleared the runway still.

The distance between two aircraft before landing has been changed to 3 nautical miles during clear visibility; earlier it was 5 nautical miles.

In case of low visibility, however, the distance between two aircraft is kept at between 8 and 10 nautical miles. The ATC had given a go-ahead to IC812 for landing as per the new standard. But the ATC, officials said, did not realise that the charted aircraft had not cleared the runway by that time.

8220;We have not been able to confirm the incident,8221; an Indian airlines spokesperson said. 8220;To be asked to take a go-around is a standard procedure and in no way poses a risk to either the passengers or the aircraft.8221;

A senior airline official said, 8220;It is definitely an error on part of the captain of the charted aircraft 8212; he did not clear the runway on time. It was, however, not very dangerous as the aircraft can pull out in the last 50 nautical miles too.8221;

Inside the aircraft, the passengers said they experience a sudden jerk as the manoeuvre requires the aircraft to suddenly go into a take-off mode when it is preparing to land.

Wary of moo menace, DIAL sends an SOS
The Delhi International Airport Limited DIAL has written to the Airport Authority of India and the CISF to ensure precautionary measures are in place after a stray cow was spotted on runway 27 on Monday evening.nbsp;

All operations were suspended till the cow was taken off the runway. DIAL officials say animals stray on to the runway mainly due to the extensive construction activity taking place around the airport, which makes it difficult for the authorities to curb the 8216;animal menace8217;. The airport had earlier seen a flight taking off hit a stray dog. An NGO was roped in to remove stray dogs from inside the airport earlier this year. Nearly 50 flights were delayed in June when the airport authorities had to chase away jackals and monitor lizards that strayed into the area.