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Kolkata Airport Runway Incident: A surprising case of major lapse in security arrangements has come to light at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBI Airport), one of the busiest airports in the country. Suddenly a stray dog entered the main runway of the airport, just when a passenger plane was very close to the runway for landing. On seeing the presence of the dog on the runway, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the pilot present in the cockpit showed amazing promptness and understanding, due to which a horrific plane accident was averted. By aborting the landing process at the last moment (Go-Around), the aircraft was taken to a safe altitude and later, keeping in mind the fuel and operational safety, the flight was diverted to another nearby airport. After this incident, the breathing of hundreds of passengers on board the plane stopped for some time, but after the safe landing, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
According to information received from airport sources, this incident occurred when the plane was on its final approach and its wheels were about to touch the runway in just a few seconds. Then the ground staff and ATC tower monitoring the runway noticed a stray dog running on the runway strip. Since the speed of the aircraft at the time of landing is more than 200 kilometers per hour, hitting any animal on the runway could have resulted in a terrible accident due to loss of balance of the aircraft, tire burst or engine failure. Sensing the danger, ATC officials without wasting a moment issued an alert to the pilot to abort the landing. The pilot also immediately followed the Standard Safety Procedure (SOP) and instead of landing the aircraft, lifted it back into the sky and after circling over Kolkata Airport, made a safe landing at the nearest alternate airport as per the instructions of ATC.
As soon as information was received about stray dog entering the runway, there was panic among the airport security agencies, CISF and runway inspection team. All upcoming landings and take-offs on the runway were temporarily halted with immediate effect. The vehicles of ground handling and wildlife control team immediately reached the runway and after a lot of effort, the dog was safely chased out of the runway area. After this, the safety officials conducted a detailed inspection of the entire runway (Runway Sweeping & Inspection) to ensure that there was no other animal or debris present on the runway. Only after complete satisfaction and clearance from ATC, normal operations of the aircraft could be resumed, although during this period, partial delays in the timings of many other flights were also recorded.
The incident of a stray dog reaching the high-security operational area i.e. the runway of a major international airport like Kolkata has raised serious questions on the functioning of the airport management and security system. Aviation experts say that given the high walls, barbed wire and 24-hour deployment of security personnel around the airport, any animal reaching the runway definitely points to a lapse in perimeter monitoring or the drainage and gate system. Taking this matter very seriously, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the airport management have ordered an internal inquiry. Officials have been directed to immediately check the boundary wall, drainage routes and all entry points of the airport and fix accountability of the personnel responsible for this lapse, so that such compromise with the safety of passengers does not happen again in future.