Saudi Aircraft Leaves Iaf Airport

With only `one take off and one landing permitted, the chief test pilot of Saudi Airlines flew the airlines wide-bodied Boeing 747-300 series aircraft out of the Indian Airforce (IAF) airfield.

The Saudia Airlines plane had landed i the IAF airfield on Monday instead of the Chennai airport despite warning.

Yesterdays takeoff evoked applause from airmen collected near the IAF runway to watch the operation.

Using maximum throttle, applying brakes and immediately releasing them, the pilot maneuvered the aircraft and took off from the `middle marker point, which is less than 4,000 feet, at 1648 hours and safely landed at the Chennai airport at 1658 hours, a distance of a mere six nautical miles. Around 1300 hours the aircraft, which had landed at the secondary runway of the airbase (measuring 4753 feet), was towed to a primary runway of the airbase (measuring 5863 feet) by Air Indias tow vehicle.