Flight tries to ‘land’ at Juhu, denies claim

Mumbai: A Mumbai-bound flight of Singapore Airlines mistakenly made an approach to land at Juhu airport on Monday morning. The flight, Singapore Airlines SQ422, an Airbus A350, with 245 passengers and 14 crewmembers onboard was forced to discontinue the approach to landing and do a ‘go-around’. The flight finally landed at the assigned runway, located at Chhtarapati Shivaji International airport (CSIA), nine minutes behind the scheduled time.

The airline, in a statement attributed the incident to ‘poor’ visibility while an Air Traffic Control (ATC) source said that the go-around took place as the pilot allegedly mistook the Juhu airport runway for the assigned runway 09 of the Chhtarapati Shivaji International airport (CSIA). The ATC’s charge has been denied by the airline.

“Singapore Airlines flight SQ422, operating from Singapore to Mumbai on December 4, was scheduled to land on runway 09 at CSIA at 10:35 hrs. Due to poor visibility conditions, the crew discontinued the approach to runway 09 at approximately 1,000 feet, in accordance with standard operating procedures,” the airline said. The statement further added, “Air Traffic Control Mumbai then vectored the flight for a subsequent approach onto Runway 09 and the flight landed uneventfully at 10:48hrs (local time). At no time did the pilots of SQ 422 mistake Juhu airport as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.