Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) initiated action against the pilots of a SpiceJet flight that landed at the wrong end of the runway at Belagavi airport in Karnataka on October 24.
It was only a technical error and there was no chance of an accident or mishap, officers in the DGCA said on October 25.
“The air traffic control officers had asked the pilots to land on runway 26, but the flight landed on runway 08, which means the other end of the same runway. This created problems for the passengers, and confused the airport staff,” an airport official said.
However, after the incident, the pilots flew the plane back to Hyderabad around noon. This has upset officers of the DGCA who told the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau to begin a probe.
As of now, the two pilots have been taken off active flying duty and have been given notices to appear before the investigators, officers said.
“The ATC tower staff in Belagavi may also be called. The investigation will find out what went wrong, who was responsible and how such events can be prevented in future,” a senior officer said.
An airline spokesperson said in a statement: “On October 24, SpiceJet DASH8 Q400 aircraft operated from Hyderabad to Belgaum. ATC had cleared the aircraft to land on RWY26 (runway 26) at Belgaum. The aircraft, however, landed on RWY08 (runway 8)".
The SpiceJet spokesperson said the aircraft landed safely and the airline acted ‘immediately and proactively’ on receiving the information, and informed DGCA and AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) and immediately off-rostered both pilots pending an investigation.
