Flight lands on wrong runway at IGI, avoids major incident

AFGHAN AIRLINE PILOT CLAIMS IT WAS BECAUSE OF A MALFUNCTION IN THE INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM, POOR VISIBILITY

- Neha LM Tripathi

A major incident was avoided at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Sunday when an Ariana Afghan Airlines aircraft landed on a wrong runway.

According to officials aware of the incident, flight FG-311 from Kabul was given clearance by the IGI Air Traffic Control (ATC) to land on runway 29L, being used for landings. However, the aircraft landed on the new parallel runway — 29R — which was being used for takeoffs.

The Airbus A310, however, landed safely since no takeoffs were taking place at the time. An official said, “Luckily no aircraft was taking off at that time. Anything could have happened if there were a few seconds' difference here or there.”

In statement, the captain claimed the accident occurred because of a malfunction in the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and poor visibility.