Kolkata, India: Aircraft snag, poor visibility disrupt operations at city airport.

KOLKATA: Flight operations at Kolkata airport were suspended twice on Friday, first when an aircraft was stranded on the runway and again when heavy rain reduced visibility.

While the shutdown caused by aircraft snag could not be averted, the rain-led disruption occurred because the primary runway that is equipped with instrument landing system was shut for maintenance. A notice to airmen had been issued, alerting pilots that the primary runway would be shut from noon till 2.45pm and that the secondary runway would be in operation during this period.

Though the secondary runway has category-I ILS that allows flight operations till 550-metre visibility, pre-commissioning procedural delays has prevented its use. Airport officials said they were hopeful of completing the procedures before November to commission it before fog sets in.

The first disruption in operation took place between 12.42pm and 12.56pm when an Air India flight arriving from Guwahati got stranded on the runway after touchdown. The pilot noticed a problem in the nose wheel hydraulic system and alerted the ATC before landing. After the plane landed, it could not steer off the runway and had to be towed along the taxi track.

Since it wasn't a particularly busy time of the day, only a Kolkata-Imphal IndiGo flight ready for takeoff was held back for 14 minutes.

Operations at the airport were suspended again at 2.28pm when rain reduced visibility below 2,800 metre. That is the cut-off mark till which flight operations are allowed for visually aided landing. According to Met office, the visibility dropped till 1,500 metre.

At that time, a flight from Agartala was approaching to land while three flights were preparing for takeoff. Had the CAT-I ILS system that is installed in the secondary runway been operational, the flight disruptions wouldn't have happened.

Though the system was installed over four months ago and was tested and calibrated by Airports Authority of India aircraft soon afterwards, its commissioning has been held up because the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been sitting over the matter. It is only on Wednesday that it gave a go-ahead for commercial airlines to test the landing procedures and submit its report.

"Air India and Jet Airways will now carry out test flights to check the calibrations. If they are satisfied with the system and submit a favourable report to DGCA, the ILS will be commissioned. We are hopeful that it will happen within a month," said AAI regional executive director (east) Gautam Mukherjee said.

With fuel running out for the IndiGo flight from Agartala that was hovering over Kolkata, airport authorities decided to wind up maintenance work on the primary runway and open it for operations. The plane finally landed on the primary runway at 2.42 pm. Three flights that were set for takeoff-Druk Air flight to Paro, SpiceJet flight to Chennai and Kingfisher Airlines flight to Mumbai-were delayed.

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