Charter plane with Rajasthan CM on board lands at wrong runway in Phalodi

NEW DELHI: A charter aircraft flying Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma from Delhi to Phalodi on last Thursday (July 31) landed on a “wrong” airstrip at its destination. While the Falcon 2000 was to land at Phalodi Air Force Station, it landed at a civil airstrip of the city. Sources say the pilots realised their mistake and then took off from the civil airstrip to land the jet at the IAF station. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing this case and has taken the pilots off flying duty pending investigation.

“The CM flew from Delhi to Phalodi on July 31 at 3 pm. The aircraft landed at the civil airstrip in Phalodi. The pilots immediately took off from the wrong airstrip and then landed at the Phalodi IAF station, which was the scheduled airport for it and about 5 km away from the former. The CM alighted there and a couple of hours later flew the aircraft to Jaipur. The Falcon 2000 then flew back to Delhi the same night,” said people in the know.

The charter company filed a voluntary report on the “wrong airport landing incident” with the DGCA. The civil airstrip and the IAF station in Phalodi are about 5 km apart. “The flight crew misidentified the intended runway during approach.
Seemingly there was inadequate pre-flight briefing about the presence of two airfields in close vicinity. Pilots must get proper pre-flight briefing and that is something operators need to work on to ensure such things don’t happen,” say sources. The Dassault Falcon 2000 is a French business jet that can carry 8-10 passengers with a range of upto 6,000 km.

This case has raised concern as an aircraft supposed to land at the civil airstrip by mistake entering the restricted military airspace could have legal and safety consequences. “The civil airstrip may not support the aircraft’s weight category, compromising landing safety. Also, military-civil coordination may be lacking during such mis-landings, increasing response time for corrective action,” they add.

The headquarters for the eponymous district, Phalodi is also called the “salt city” due to the salt industry in Rin. Phalodi is in the buffer zone of Thar Desert and close to Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.