Flight lands on wrong runway at IGI, avoids major incident

An Ariana Afghan Airlines flight mistakenly landed on the wrong runway at Delhi Airport due to ILS malfunction, but no incident occurred.

A major incident was averted at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Sunday when an Ariana Afghan Airlines aircraft landed on a wrong runway.

Flight lands on wrong runway at IGI, avoids major incident

According to officials aware of the incident, an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight FG-311 from Kabul was given clearance by the IGI Air Traffic Control (ATC) to land on runway 29L, being used for landings. However, the flight landed on the new parallel runway — 29R — which was being used for take-offs.

The Airbus A310, however, landed safely since no take-offs were taking place at the time. An official said, “Luckily no aircraft was taking off at that time. Anything could have happened if there were a few seconds’ difference here or there.”

In statement, the captain claimed the accident occurred because of a malfunction in the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and poor visibility.

A written statement has been sought from the crew by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA ), which is investigating the matter, officials aware of the matter further said.

DGCA’s preliminary findings have found that there was no error on the part of the air traffic control (ATC) while instructing the aircraft to land and that the pilots had been asked to land on runway 29L, the correct one.

“The PIC (pilot-in-command) has acknowledged the clearance for runway 29L to the local air traffic control (ATC),” an official close to the matter said.

Another official said the pilot, Captain Abdul Maroof Sikandari, when questioned said the ILS was fixed on 29L for landing but malfunctioned during the Final Approach Fix (FAF). The ILS is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to an aircraft allowing it to approach a runway at night, during bad weather and poor visibility. FAF marks the beginning of the final approach segment of an instrument approach procedure.

The DGCA has yet to officially confirm this sequence of events.

The second official quoted above said, “The pilot, when questioned, said that the aircraft was established on the ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach for 29L. He said that, after the final approach fix, both ILS systems malfunctioned. He has also attributed the incident to poor visibility and the loss of lateral guidance, due to which the aircraft deviated from the intended path.”

According the statement taken from the cockpit crews, the pilots only became aware that they had landed on the wrong runway after vacating it. “(ATC) tower informed the pilots that they had touched down on runway 29R instead of runway 29L,” a third official said, confirming that the crew attributed the deviation to ILS failure and low-visibility conditions.

Officials said statements from the flight crew are being examined. “The regulator is reviewing the sequence of events to understand how the misalignment occurred during the final approach,” the official said.

Delhi airport manages over 1,200 flights daily and operates four runways: 27/09, 28/10 (both older runways), 29L/11R, and 29R/11L — with the newest runway becoming operational in 2023.