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ShareMumbai: With runway repairs starting on Tuesday, operations at Mumbai airport are likely to get more chaotic, what with drainage repair work also in progress and certain taxiways unavailable.
This month itself there have been at least two close calls on the ground. In one case, a fire engine crossed a runway just as an aircraft was readying for takeoff. In another, an aircraft that was on its way to the apron was hit by a truck.
Though damage was minimal in both cases, the incidents raise questions about the level of safety in ground operations.
At around 9:40pm on October 2, an IndiGo Airlines flight from Mumbai to Bangalore (6E 415) was on runway 27 of 09:27 for takeoff.At that time, a passenger coach of Jet Airways caught fire near gate 8 of the old airport terminal at Kalina.
"The driver had called the fire brigade and a fire tender crossed the runway to reach the spot," said an official of Mumbai International Airport Limited (Mial), the company that runs the airport. "The plane was just minutes from takeoff. Luckily, an air traffic control (ATC) official saw the vehicle crossing the runway and immediately alerted the pilot."
On October 3, an al-Jazeera Airways flight from Kuwait to Mumbai (J9 606) landed in Mumbai at about 2:50am.The aircraft was on its way to the international apron when a catering truck suddenly came along and hit its left wing.
"The pilot had not seen the truck and it was only after the aircraft got a jerk that he became aware that something had happened," an ATC official said.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 17% of all accidents in 2008 were related to ground damage. Such accidents/incidents are estimated to cost the airline industry US $4 billion annually. Because of such accidents occurring every now and then, security has become a cause for concern, which needs to be tackled by airlines, ground handlers, and regulatory and airport authorities together.
While confirming the incidents, the Mial spokesperson said they were unrelated and should not be described as a series of ground incidents. "When the IndiGo incident happened, the fire tender had informed the ATC and crossed the runway," the spokesperson said. "In the al-Jazeeera case, the driver's advanced driving permit (ADP) was seized and the aircraft left the same day."
Director-general of civil aviation Nasim Zaidi said an inquiry had been ordered into both cases.
