New Delhi, Dec 12: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi narrowly escaped a disaster while landing in Delhi when another aircraft was found to be still on the runway on which his private business jet had been cleared to land.
Just moments before his Cessna Citation jet was about to touch down on Tuesday, air traffic controllers asked Rahul's plane to abort landing and take off again to avoid a collision on the runway between the two planes. Luckily for the Gandhi scion and the crew on the aircraft, the pilots managed to pull the yoke and climb again.
"Rahul Gandhi was flying into Delhi from Rae Bareilly. The air traffic control here had given clearance to his business jet to land. Before his Cessna, an Ilyushin aircraft of Indian Air Force had landed on the runway. It was estimated that this aircraft will vacate the runway in time for the Cessna to touch down. However, that did not happen," said a source.
"When Rahul's plane was about to touch down, the Ilyushin was still moving slowly and was on the runway. At that point, the ATC asked Rahul's pilots to abort landing to avoid a collision. It was a very close shave," said the source.
The Cessna Citation, an ultra luxury American business jet, was being piloted by two captains. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into this serious lapse.
Aircraft are always given clear runways to land on to have space for any problem post touchdown with brakes that may force the aircraft to use the entire available length of runway to stop. In fact, for this very reason airstrips have something called runway end safety areas with sand to ensure that an aircraft stops there if it fails to do so on the runway. Having a plane land on a runway that has another aircraft still on it could have disastrous consequences.
Sources say the probe will examine how a small and fast aircraft like a Cessna was asked to land behind a Russian plane notorious for its slow — almost lethargic — movement without proper spacing between the two planes. There is a very exact sequencing procedure for balancing aircraft movement at airports that see different kinds of planes that move at different speeds.
"This is being viewed very seriously. It is not about a VVIP being on a plane, such a scare should not happen with any plane. There has been a procedural lapse here," said a source.
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