Ariana Afghan flight from Kabul lands on wrong runway, disaster averted
A flight from Kabul landed on the wrong runway, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday. The incident happened in the afternoon, when the plane landed on the runway meant for takeoffs. Fortunately however, there was no flight on that runway at the time of the incident and a major accident was averted.
New Delhi: In an event which could have turned disastrous, but fortunately did not, an Afghanistan Ariana flight from Kabul landed on a runway that is used for takeoffs at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. The incident happened on Sunday afternoon.
No serious consequences
According to a report in the Times of India, when the Afghan airways plane landed on the wrong runway, fortunately there were no departing aircraft on it. Hence the mistake by the A310 pilot did not have any serious consequences.
However, aviation authorities in India have launched a probe in the matter. They are planning to write to their Afghan counterparts, to highlight this serious breach by the pilot.
The flight involved in the incident was identified as Ariana Afghan flight FG 311. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) had cleared it for landing on 29 left (29L), but the flight landed on 29 right (29 R) at 12:06 pm on November 23.
Runway 29R is used for takeoffs and 29L for landings. Sources quoted by the Times of India said, "This was a miraculous escape as an aircraft was to take off from 29R. Luckily it wasn't on the runway when FG311 landed on it."