Mumbai, Juhu airports unfit for emergency ops: AAI staffer

Obstacles such as high-rise buildings have rendered Mumbai airport and Juhu aerodrome unsafe and unfit for emergency operations/landings involving aircraft which may have any technical snag.

These claims form part of the report on aviation safety in the western region prepared on October 16 by then deputy general manager, air safety, Airport Authority of India (AAI), S. Mangala, who was recently transferred to Kolkata.

Ms Mangala on Thursday wrote letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju where she attached the aviation safety report and pointed out security lapses at Mumbai airport.

In her letters, Ms Mangala alleged that there was a complete breakdown in safety standards at Mumbai airport and Juhu aerodrome which rendered operations at both these airports unsafe.

In her aviation safety report, Ms Mangala addressed buildings constructed by a particular builder as a threat to air safety. The site was 668 metre from the beginning of Mumbai airport’s Runway 09, the report said. It further said that Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), in their reply regarding height of buildings in the airport vicinity, suppressed data and provided only a partial list of obstacles.

“This list of obstacles is very old and is based on a survey conducted by AAI in 2010-2011,” read Ms Mangala’s letter and aviation safety report, to which this newspaper has access. “I suspect that the approach of Mumbai airport runway alone could cross 300 because many obstacles have come up between 2010 and 2016,” said Ms Mangala.

Despite four calls and two text messages on Friday by this newspaper to AAI’s regional executive director K. Hemlatha, there was no response.