Marco Goncalves
03-07-11, 17:49
KOLKATA: A Thai Air Asia aircraft touched down on the wrong runway at the Kolkata airport around noon on Sunday causing panic-stricken men to rush out of the way of the Airbus 320.
An accident was averted after a worker engaged by the civil construction firm carrying out the maintenance work on the primary runway spotted the approaching plane and sensed something amiss. He alerted everyone else. Barely seconds after 65 men and two heavy-duty rollers moved out, the plane carrying 141 passengers from Bangkok landed about 500m from the spot they were working. Even if the pilot had applied emergency brakes, he could not have stopped the aircraft within that short distance.
ATC sources confirmed that the pilot had been told to land on the secondary runway again when he entered the Kolkata airport jurisdiction but still made the error.
The pilot realized his mistake only a couple of seconds before touchdown at 12.07pm, said sources. He spontaneously blurted out the mistake into the microphone linked to the ATC.
On December 1, 2008, the pilot of a SpiceJet flight carrying 139 passengers from Bagdogra had made the same mistake and landed on the primary runway while maintenance work was underway. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the case. It will check radar tracks to identify if there was a communication or pilot error leading to the landing on the wrong runway.
An accident was averted after a worker engaged by the civil construction firm carrying out the maintenance work on the primary runway spotted the approaching plane and sensed something amiss. He alerted everyone else. Barely seconds after 65 men and two heavy-duty rollers moved out, the plane carrying 141 passengers from Bangkok landed about 500m from the spot they were working. Even if the pilot had applied emergency brakes, he could not have stopped the aircraft within that short distance.
ATC sources confirmed that the pilot had been told to land on the secondary runway again when he entered the Kolkata airport jurisdiction but still made the error.
The pilot realized his mistake only a couple of seconds before touchdown at 12.07pm, said sources. He spontaneously blurted out the mistake into the microphone linked to the ATC.
On December 1, 2008, the pilot of a SpiceJet flight carrying 139 passengers from Bagdogra had made the same mistake and landed on the primary runway while maintenance work was underway. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the case. It will check radar tracks to identify if there was a communication or pilot error leading to the landing on the wrong runway.