Civil aviation regulator, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident involving Congress party vice president, Rahul Gandhi’s plane which was asked to abort landing and make a go around while landing at the Delhi airport on November 26.
The incident took place when a Cessna Citation business jet carrying Mr. Gandhi was forced to make a go-around while landing as an IAF aircraft had still not cleared the runway, Aviation Ministry sources said here on Thursday. The DGCA will look into the entire incident and submit a report to the Aviation Ministry. The DGCA is probing to ascertain whether there was any lapse on part of the IAF aircraft or the jet, or even the ATC.
The air traffic control (ATC) alert the business jet of Mr. Gandhi to abort landing and go around as a large IL-76 aircraft of the air force, which had just landed, was still taxiing on the tarmac.
Mr. Gandhi was returning from Rae Bareili. His jet went around for some time and later landed safely. Aviation Ministry officials said there was no safety issue involved here as there was no threat to the plane carrying Mr. Gandhi. It was asked to go around, which is a normal safety-related manoeuvre, they added.
It was estimated that the jet would be able to land after the heavy-lift Illyushin-76 'Gajaraj' vacated the runway, which did not happen. Sequencing of planes for landing is done by the ATC which also accords priority for those carrying VIPs. The pilots of the jet had announced on the open channel that they were carrying a VIP.
Mr. Gandhi's business jet was given a gap of eight km as against six due to the heavy-lift nature of the IAF plane, considering it would take more time to clear the runway. The IL-76 took more than the estimated time to do so.
