Doggie’s day out: Flights affected as stray animal wanders onto runway at Mumbai airport

Sunday seemed like it was going to be just another day at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport — until a dog changed everything. For 15-20 minutes on Sunday, one flight had to abort take off and four other flights’ landing had to be briefly suspended as a dog strayed into the runway. “Jet Airways flight which was ready to fly had to abort its take-off, while four other flights at Mumbai airport had to be suspended for a brief period today after a dog strayed into the runway. Due to this, four flights were asked to do a go-around,” sources told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_2588514” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. PTI[/caption] The flights had to wait in the skies for almost 15-20 minutes, they said, adding that operations were resumed after the authorities cleared the runway. According to DNA, the dog strayed onto the runway at 3:39 pm and was spotted by the pilot of an aircraft preparing to land. Both the airport’s staff and the ground crew of all airlines missed spotting the dog. Once the dog is caught, standard operating procedure is to take it to a kennel at the airport and offer it food, DNA quoted an official as saying. The problem of animals straying onto restricted areas at airports is such a big one that the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) had in November 2015 ordered surveillance of 20 airports in the country after they were found prone to wildlife intrusion and bird strikes. With inputs from PTI