NEW DELHI: Timely action by pilots of two Vistaraflights — one about to take off for Bagdogra and other which had just landed from Ahmedabad — at Delhi Airport on Wednesday morning prevented a potential collision and saved hundreds of lives of people on board both the planes. Delhi air traffic control (ATC) asked crew of the flight which had landed on runway 29L to taxi to terminal 3 by crossing the airport’s newest runway 29R while another aircraft was about to take off from 29R.This was noticed in the spur of time by the alert lady pilot-in-command of the taxiing aircraft which had flow in and she informed theATC, which then in turn asked the aircraft that was about to take off to abort the same.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into this runway incursion and an air traffic controller has been off-rostered or taken off duty pending the outcome of the investigation.
“Vistara Airbus A320 (VT-TNC) while operating flight UK 926 (Ahmedabad-Delhi) was involved in runway incursion at Delhi Airport on Wednesday. It landed on runway 29L and was instructed by tower controller (ATC) to cross runway 29R. Momentarily, the tower controller forgot this crossing and issued take off clearance to another Vistara flight UK 725 (Delhi-Bagdogra) from runway 29R. On realisation of this error based on input from UK 926, tower controller instructed UK 725 to cancel take off,” said a senior DGCA official, adding that the ATCO in question has been off rostered and that a probe has begun.Delhi Airport has started using its newest runway 29R-11L only for take offs from July 14, 2023. Accordingly, the nearby parallel runway 29L-11R (closest to Shivji statue) is for now used for landings alone. In the next few days, the newest runway is also going to have landings once the instrument landing system has been calibrated.
While two runways operational on this side of the airport is expected to make aircraft movement a lot faster both in the air and on the ground, the same requires absolute precision with no room for errors like the one witnessed on Wednesday. These two runways are the first set of nearby parallel runways at Delhi Airport as the third parallel runway is a distance away separated by the Northern Access Road.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into this runway incursion and an air traffic controller has been off-rostered or taken off duty pending the outcome of the investigation.
“Vistara Airbus A320 (VT-TNC) while operating flight UK 926 (Ahmedabad-Delhi) was involved in runway incursion at Delhi Airport on Wednesday. It landed on runway 29L and was instructed by tower controller (ATC) to cross runway 29R. Momentarily, the tower controller forgot this crossing and issued take off clearance to another Vistara flight UK 725 (Delhi-Bagdogra) from runway 29R. On realisation of this error based on input from UK 926, tower controller instructed UK 725 to cancel take off,” said a senior DGCA official, adding that the ATCO in question has been off rostered and that a probe has begun.Delhi Airport has started using its newest runway 29R-11L only for take offs from July 14, 2023. Accordingly, the nearby parallel runway 29L-11R (closest to Shivji statue) is for now used for landings alone. In the next few days, the newest runway is also going to have landings once the instrument landing system has been calibrated.
While two runways operational on this side of the airport is expected to make aircraft movement a lot faster both in the air and on the ground, the same requires absolute precision with no room for errors like the one witnessed on Wednesday. These two runways are the first set of nearby parallel runways at Delhi Airport as the third parallel runway is a distance away separated by the Northern Access Road.
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Watch Timely action by Vistara pilots saves hundreds of lives at Delhi Airport
