Despite accident, two flights allowed to land: Nagpur Airport, Maharashtra, India

MUMBAI: The runway is considered so sacrosanct that there are a number of rules in place that dictate when it can be deemed active, and hence be used for aircraft operations, and when it cannot. On Saturday evening, a passenger aircraft from Mumbai and another from Bangalore landed at Nagpur airport's runway even though it was unfit for handling flight operations and so should have been shut down temporarily. The revealing detail of the incident is that the safety norm was violated because the aviation officials concerned had poor knowledge and were ignorant of the rules.

The problems began around 2.30pm when a Cessna 152 aircraft belonging to the Nagpur flying club, touched down on runway 32 of Nagpur airport only to swing off a few seconds later to the left. The small, piston-engine aircraft ploughed into the mud and lodged itself a few metres off the runway.

"About five minutes later a call was made to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) office in Mumbai and the official concerned in charge of investigation was informed,'' said a source. ``The DGCA officer instructed that the aircraft should not be removed till the time he flew down to Nagpur to investigate the matter," the source said.

Now that was surprising as the Cessna 152 was lodged close to the runway. "It was about 90 metre from the runway centerline, which meant that it was too close to the runway and so would need to be removed if other flight operations were to be allowed on the said runway,'' said the official. That is because according to the DGCA and the International Civil Aviation Organization's "Clearway Standards", a distance of at least 150 m (500 feet) from the runway centerline should be kept free of obstacles or objects. A stranded aircraft within the clearway distance is a clear violation.

It seems that neither did the DGCA official concerned nor the Airports Authority of India officials based in Nagpur knew about this 150m clearance rule. So even as the Cessna 152 aircraft lay close to the runway, a Jetlite Boeing 737 from Bangalore landed in Nagpur around 4.30pm and took off an hour later. Around 6 pm, an IndiGo flight from Mumbai landed in Nagpur and took off a while later for Kolkata.

By evening the news of the stranded aircraft had spread in AAI and DGCA, which is when officials in the know raised an alarm. "They called Nagpur air traffic control and asked if the runway had been temporarily shut down. That is when they learnt that the AAI officials did not even know that they were supposed to shut down the runway," said an AAI source. "When the DGCA official who instructed that the aircraft be not moved was informed about this rule, he immediately asked the Nagpur airport officials to take photographs of the aircraft and remove it from its location," said a DGCA official. The aircraft was removed around 6.30pm.

The director-general of civil aviation Arun Mishra was not available for comment. When asked why was the runway not shut down, A K Verma, AAI airport director, Nagpur, said: "Our air traffic control officials investigated the matter and we have followed all safety norms." When he was told that the aircraft was 90m from the centerline, Verma responded that he did not know how far the aircraft was but it was within the safe limits.

An investigation is on, but not into how the runway was deemed active despite the obstacle. The DGCA is investigating how the flying training aircraft went off the runway. The Nagpur airport is operated by AAI and Maharastra Airport Development Company and these are the two organizations that primarily have the responsibility of keeping the runway and its clearway free of obstacles.

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