Yet another aborted landing at airport

In what is becoming a routine occurrence at the Delhi airport, another aircraft had to abort landing at the last moment on Friday because an aircraft was present on the runway.

In what is becoming a routine occurrence at the Delhi airport, another aircraft had to abort landing at the last moment on Friday because an aircraft was present on the runway.

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The incident, involving an international flight, happened around 3.40pm when the aircraft was descending to land. The 200-odd passengers on board had a close shave as the pilot was told by the air traffic control to abort landing and make a ‘go around’ as another aircraft, a domestic budget carrier, was present on the runway.

This is the fourth such incident in the past 15 days.

“The aircraft of the budget carrier had landed sometime before but had failed to vacate the runway,” said an airport source. “As a result the international flight was asked to abort landing and make a go around. The flight finally landed 45 minutes later,” he said.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), however, maintains that go arounds are a standard operating procedure (SOP) to maintain safety.

“Aborted landing and go around are becoming common features at the airport thanks to the huge spurt in air traffic,” said an air traffic controller who didn’t wish to be named.