Man strays on to runway, landing aborted

Aircraft forced to abort landing

Entry of an unauthorised person into the main runway at the Chennai airport on Wednesday evening forced Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials to abort the landing of an aircraft, which was asked to go around.

AAI sources said around 6.30 p.m. pilots of two airlines who were on the taxi track noticed the stranger on the northern portion of the runway.

They immediately informed the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower. The ATC authorities alerted the Apron Control, which sent a vehicle and secured the stranger.

At that time, a Jetlite flight was approaching the landing path. The ATC authorities asked the flight to abort landing and go around. Later, it landed safely.

Investigation

Preliminary investigation by Central Industrial Security Force personnel revealed that the person hailed from Andhra Pradesh and was mentally unstable. He was identified as Kondaiah (23).