All the 331 passengers and 17 crew aboard a Saudi airliner Jumbo had a providential escape yesterday when the wide-bodied aircraft landed with thud at an air force airfield ignoring warning cartridges fired by airmen.
No passenger of the Saudia Boeing 747, which was on a flight from Riyadh to Chennai, was injured as the plane, instead of landing at Chennai international airport, touched down on a much shorter runway at the Indian Air Force (IAF) airfield than needed for such a big aircraft and screeched to a halt, causing its tyres to burst.
The Saudi plane landed on a 4763-feet runway at the IAF airfield, as against 8,000 feet runway required for a jumbo, even as airmen fired red cartridges signalling refusal of landing permission to it. The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered an inquiry into the incident and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) also appointed a one-member fact-finding committee to go into all aspects of the incident. Yesterdays incident came six months after a Saudi jumbo was involved in a mid-air collision with a Kazakh transport plane over Charkhi-Dadri in Haryana killing all the 359 passengers on board the two aircraft on November 12 last year. Giving details of the sequence of events that led to the incident, a defence spokesman, who arrived at the Tambaram air force station, said the duty radar controller spotted the unusual sight of a civilian aircraft flying over IAF airspace.
Immediately, he contacted the duty radar controller at the Chennai airport and asked him not to allow any civilian aircraft into the restricted area. The spokesman said the Chennai airport controller replied there was some problem with his radar, but said he would try to contact the aircraft and instruct the pilot suitably.
Meanwhile, the aircraft went away from the restricted zone, but again reappeared over IAF airspace, approximately at a height of 2000 feet, which, according to the spokesman, was not the right approach for landing at the IAF aifield.
Once again, the airforce controller spoke to the airport controller even as the aircraft turned left and went away from the IAF airfield. But, for the third time the aircraft appeared and this time the pilots approach was for making a landing and the IAF controller, on seeing the aircraft approach, immediately instructed the airmen on duty to fire red cartridges (used to indicate that landing permission has been denied).
Simultaneously, the Chennai air traffic controller was asked to instruct the pilot to leave the IAF zone. Four more red cartridges were fired when the aircraft was one km from the touchdown point on the IAF runway. In spite of these warnings, the aircraft approached and touched down.
The jet landed with a big thud and came to a jolting and screeching halt by using almost the entire 4763 feet of the secondary IAF runway. Due to immense friction created by the heavy landing, four of its tyres burst.
