Pilot skids, into cricket match on Solapur runway

What they didn’t factor — Solapur airport’s open ground and landing strip are regularly encroached upon by residents for a game of cricket or footbal; some even answer nature’s call here.

As the plane neared touch-down, the pilots saw that over 500 men, women and children were gathered beneath them. Lynn circled the airport twice to give people time to vacate the landing strip, but by the third round, he had to make a landing. As many people were still on the strip, he had to use emergency brakes, sending the plane into a 100m skid and leaving it with two burst tyres.

‘‘This was the first time I had to save people on the strip during landing,’’ Lynn said.

‘‘I was playing cricket with my friends as usual on the strip,” said a frightened Bhima Koli, who lives in a slum nearby. “We heard the plane, but didn’t care as no plane lands here daily. Suddenly I saw a plane rushing towards us and we ran to save our lives.”

The airport is surrounded by illegal housing societies which have mushroomed over the last 20 years. The airport has no telephone and the staff is inadequate for security.