Chennai airport operations pose major threat to passengers   CHENNAI: Describing the near-miss on Saturday as a "serious incident", senior aviation and navigation experts said Chennai airport operations were posing a major threat to passenger safety as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) does not consult the air traffic control (ATC) or the pilots while making any changes to flight navigation. They also point out that AAI has ignored the need for rapid exit taxiways in the multi-crore airport expansion project in Chennai. V Krishnan, senior advisor of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said Saturday's incident, which occurred due to the closure of the taxiway, was neither the mistake of the landed aircraft nor the ATC officials. "Rejecting the take-off of Jet Airways and decision to 'go around' by the Air India pilot were timely decisions coordinated by the ATC. Neither the ATC nor the aircraft could be blamed. Rather, they averted a major accident," said Krishnan, a member of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council that was constituted after the Mangalore plane crash, Krishnan said Chennai needed a rapid exit taxiway to reduce the runway occupancy time. "Even the new taxiway being built in the airport does not have the provisions of a rapid exit for the aircraft. We should not fail to take up the need for a rapid exit track when we proceed with a major expansion project," he said.

 

Taxiway-E has been being closed for maintenance and the complete arrival and departure operations are being handled through taxiway-G, which delayed the exit of IndiGo aircraft from the runway on Saturday's incident. "Terminals are highly congested due to improper flight schedules during peak hours. Lack of taxiways increase the runway occupancy time, putting tremendous pressure on both ATC and pilots," said a DGCA official. He said safety has to be considered as the first priority and the airline timings should be revised considering the available infrastructure and traffic. "All these decisions on aircraft movements are being taken without consulting the operational wing, including ATC and pilots. Now, the airlines themselves decide the flight timings according to their convenience resulting in overcrowded traffic at peak hours," official said.

Sources with Air Traffic Controllers Guild of India said Saturday's incident was due to the closure of taxiway-E. "It was ATC that aborted the take-off of Jet Airways to avoid a risk because Air India already took a decision to go around. The Air India pilot reported landing about 8 miles away from the airport but a minor delay in the take-off of Jet aircraft changed the calculations. Neither ATC nor the aircraft pilots made any mistake in the whole incident," said the source. Experts point out that the current operations with a single taxiway in Chennai, especially when the airport is undergoing a major expansion project, pose a major safety threat. Though ATC experts and navigation safety advisers have been demanding for a rapid exit taxiway for a long time, it has fallen on deaf ears. Hope the concerned authorities will take some action in near future.