Probe begins into stray landing

The Saudi Airlines jumbojet aircraft which landed at the Indian Air Force base in Tambaram instead of the Chennai airport on Monday morning...

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The Saudi Airlines jumbojet aircraft which landed at the Indian Air Force base in Tambaram instead of the Chennai airport on Monday morning.

CHENNAI, June 3: Two senior officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) arrived here today to investigate the reasons for the Saudi Airlines Boeing-747 aircraft landing at the Indian Air Force (IAF) Tambaram base instead of Chennai airport.

The 331 passengers and 17 crew members had a miraculous escape when the aircraft on the Riyadh-Dhahran-Chennai sector landed safely yesterday at the IAF airfield which had a shorter landing strip nearly half of the 8000 feet required for the wide-bodied jet to make a normal landing.

The two officials M S Gohain, deputy director general of the Airworthiness Directorate, a unit of the DGCA, and a senior Airworthiness officer, H S Rawat have already reached Tambaram to inspect the aircraft.

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According to the Airports Authority of India (AAI)’s National Airports Division (NAD), which controls Indian air space, the two officials have asked the Saudi Airlines pilot, Captain Khayyat, to come to the NAD office here for a meeting.

The two officials were also given the transcript of the taped conversation between the pilot and Chennai airport’s Air Traffic Control (ATC), NAD sources said.

The aircraft is the first civilian aircraft to have landed in the sensitive defence establishment.

Surprisingly, the pilot landed the aircraft on the Zero Five runway at IAF Tambaram, whereas, he was given clearance to land on the Zero Seven runway at Chennai airport. Not only was the pilot unable to discern the difference, he also evidently failed to distinguish the IAF airbase from the international airport, which has the requisite facilities attached to it. The pilot had informed the passengers on board that everything was all right, and that they had simply landed in the wrong airfield.

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Under DGCA rules, the pilot’s licence is liable for cancellation. But whether India can interfere with the licence of another country’s pilot is another question. At best, the pilot can be prevented from operating in Indian airspace.

Earlier, in January 1993, a Russian aircraft — TU 154, taken on lease by Indian Airlines and operating between Delhi and Chennai — almost landed at the Tambaram Air Force station airstrip. However, the IAF refused permission to land and the alert pilot pulled up the aircraft at the last moment. It later landed safely at Chennai airport.