Early morning on Wednesday, a Blue Dart plane allegedly took off like a “drunken horse” from the Mumbai airport. The plane damaged 15 edge lights on both sides of the runway, but the pilot did not report the incident to the air traffic control (ATC) until he had landed the plane at Bangalore and noticed four deflated tyres and pieces of jagged metals jutting out of the fuselage.
The ATC officials blamed the pilot, saying that he had mistaken the edge lights of the runway for its central line. The aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, started rolling without aligning itself along the median. First it broke 10 edge lights on its left. Realising his mistake the pilot veered right and broke five edge lights on the right. Finally, he managed to right the plane and took off.
The question is how did the pilot misjudge the edge lights for the central line? It can happen only if the lights on the central line are off. And that is exactly what had happened. So, it will be unfair blaming the pilot alone.
The lights on the central line of the main runway (09-27) have been shut down since June 3. Blame it on the Mithi river desilting work. “The river flows under the runway. Because of the desilting work, around four to five lights on the central line were impaired. The Mumbai International Airport Limited (Mial) issued a notam (notice to airmen) informing all airlines that the central line lights will not be working,” an airport source said.
The lights will remain switched off till October 31, stated the no-tam, a copy of which is with DNA. “The absence of the central line lights makes it very difficult for pilots to take off at night. We have to depend on our experience to align the aircraft with the central line,” a senior pilot of the Jet Airways said.
Lights are out even at the touchdown zone (TDZ) and they will not come on till October. “We have instrument landing system (ILS) and precision approach path indicator (Papi) to help us land safely in the absence of TDZ lights. However, there is still the risk of a plane over-shooting the runway,” an Air India (AI) commander said.
“At times, even the taxiway lights are out. Mumbai is the busiest airport in the country. Why can’t it have proper infrastructure? They can shut down the runway for a day or so, and get all the lights repaired.”
A spokesperson of the Mial said, “The central line lights have been switched off for runway upgradation. The old lights were not properly aligned.” Allaying fears of mishaps happening for the absence of lights, he added, “There are 700 movements daily at the Mumbai airport and no such incident has happened yet.”
Comments