SURAT: What was meant to be an exercise to strengthen coordination between various agencies during a hijacking situation, ended up being an episode of miscoordination with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) ordering an inquiry into it.
The aviation watchdog had ordered a probe after a pilot of a nine-seater Ventura Airconnect aircraft reported that he had to abort landing at Surat airport on November 22 as there were five police vehicles moving on the runway. This happened after a routine anti-hijacking mock drill organized by the Airport Authority of India, Surat before Diwali in coordination with local police, fire brigade, and other security agencies.
The matter came to the limelight recently when the Surat airport authorities in their reply to DGCA probe blamed the Surat police personnel for the flight with 11 persons onboard having to abort the landing. They alleged that police personnel did not have any instruction to go towards the runway as the mock drill was over before the aircraft was given permission to land.
According to sources at Surat airport, after the mock drill was over, all agencies and vehicles move away from the operational area. But the five police vehicles went towards the runway at full speed. At the same time, a nine-seater aircraft approached for landing. When the pilot saw vehicles moving on the runway, he aborted the landing and informed the air traffic control (ATC).
While the airport officials blamed the police department, the cops said that ATC should have kept buffer time between mock drill completion and landing of the aircraft. “It was a major mock drill. So, all machinery and personnel involved are real and it takes time to vacant the place after any operation. The incident could have been avoided if there was some buffer time allocated by the ATC,” said a senior policeman, seeking anonymity.
