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In a second incident within a month , a Delhi bound AirAsia flight had to abort take-off on Sunday morning after a dog entered the runway of Dabolim international Airport. According to sources, the incident occurred just about when we plane was ready for departure. “The flight 15778 was to depart at around 8.25 am but finally left at around 9.15 am, almost after an hour’s delay. The dog was spotted on the runway by an Air Traffic Control official and was removed from the runway immediately after which the flight departed,” said the source.
When contacted a naval spokesperson confirmed that the take-off was aborted after a dog entered the runway of the airport. The Indian Navy spokesperson said on Twitter, “At about 0825 hours today, when AirAsia flight 778 was rolling for take off at Goa airport, alert ATC spotted a dog entering runway and immediately informed pilot who aborted take off. The flight departed 0915 hours after additional technical checks.”
Another tweet by Spokesperson of the Navy said that “INS Hansa has proactively taken steps to relocate dogs from vicinity of runway. Under MoU of Indian Navy with Department of Animal Husbandry, nearly 60 dogs have been relocated since mid-August.”
It may be recalled that on August 13, an Air India plane reportedly aborted landing at the Dabolim airport due to dogs on the runway prompting Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat to demand a probe by the civil aviation ministry into the serious lapse. Kamat had shared a tweet of one Govind Gaonkar, who narrated the incident involving a Mumbai-Goa Air India flight.
Kamat sharing the tweet with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the civil aviation ministry, said it was a serious lapse and safety of passengers were put at risk.“Will DGCA take note of this serious lapse? Safety of passengers put at risk. I urge @MoCA_GoI to take cognizance and act. @goacm,” stated Kamat in his
tweet.
Panchayats Minister Mauvin Godinho who subsequently had taken up a meeting with Airport committee on August 20, said that an NGO was already been appointed to take care of stray dog menace at Dabolim Airport. “The Animal Husbandry Department has already been entrusted this job to an NGO to tackle stray dogs in and around the airport so that dogs are not found on the runway. The agency has also been allotted Rs 7 lakh and we will be giving more funds. The agency has already began its work.We have asked the airport and Navy to secure its fencing for any gaps, so that dogs cannot enter inside and this which has already been done,” Godinho had said.
