Second animal scare in one week at Nagpur airport

NAGPUR, MAY 7 : Barely a week after an Indian Air Force IL-76 encountered two pigs on the runway while landing, 135 passengers aboard a Jet Airways fight (9W111) from Mumbai had another animal scare before they could safely land at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport here. This is the third incident at the airport within two months.

However, Airport Director B N Borkar denied the incident. “There was no animal. The pilot’s report suggested that the incident was due to an unstabilised approach. There is no such information with the ATC either and our inspection teams found nothing. When the pilot is new the confidence level dips a bit at times.”

But Maharashtra’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) B Majumdar, who was on board the flight, told The Indian Express that the plane actually touched the ground before suddenly taking off again. “The pilot made the announcement that the plane couldn’t land as some animal was spotted on the runway,” he said.

In fact, Majumdar has been dealing with the presence of wild animals inside the airport premises along with the Airport Authority of India and has had several communications with them on the measures needed to drive the animals away. “I have feared this for long since I use the airport frequently,” he said.

Also aboard the flight were Maharashtra’s PWD Minister Anil Deshmukh, his wife Aarti and his cousin and former MPCC chief Ranjit Deshmukh. Though Anil Deshmukh couldn’t be reached, Ranjit Deshmukh confirmed the incident. “The pilot saw some animal when the plane was about 100 feet above ground. Then there was a rough landing before the plane took off again,” he said.

The 700-hectare airport has a lot of vegetation and water sources that attract wild animals like cheetals, wild boars and deer through breaches in the compound wall.

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