NEW DELHI: An Afghanistan Ariana flight from Kabul landed on a runway that is used for take offs at Delhi Airport on Sunday afternoon. Luckily there was no departing aircraft on that runway at that time and the Afghan Airbus A310's "mistaken" landing did not have serious consequences.
The pilot of the Afghan flight is learnt to have blamed the mix-up on "failure of instrument landing system (ILS) guidance and poor visibility. Aviation authorities have begun a probe and will write to their counterparts in Afghanistan about this serious incident.Ariana Afghan flight FG 311 was cleared to land on runway 29 left (29L) but it landed on runway 29 right (29R) at 12.06 pm on Nov 23. Runway 29R is used for take offs and 29L for landings at IGIA.
"This was a miraculous escape as an aircraft was to take off from 29R. Luckily it wasn't on the runway when FG311 landed on it," said sources.People in the know say the captain of the Afghan flight after landing told authorities that after "final approach fix both ILS systems malfunctioned while the aircraft was established on the ILS for Runway 29L.
Due to the poor visibility and the failure of the ILS guidance, the aircraft unintentionally deviated from the intended approach path." The captain is learnt to have claimed that Delhi air traffic control did not warm them of deviating from the approach of the designated runway 29L.
This claim is yet to be verified.After landing, the captain informed ATC of landing on a wrong runway. "The runway deviation occurred as a result of the ILS system failure and the associated loss of lateral guidance in low-visibility," the captain of AFG 311 is learnt to have told authorities here.
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