New Hyderabad Airport
There has been a number of new airports which opened the last few weeks, and more are set to open in the near future. I can imagine that if you’re a frequent traveler expecting to land in the Changi Airport Terminal 1 and end up in the newly opened Terminal 3, it can be disorienting. However, I think it’s one thing for such arrival information to escape passengers and another for a pilot to remain in the dark about where they’re supposed to land.
An airline pilot took his passengers on a 1,200-mile detour after refusing to land at a new airport in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, claiming he had never heard of it.
With 233 passengers on board, the KLM pilot diverted the flight from Amsterdam northwards from Hyderabad to New Delhi, was denied permission to land, and finally arrived in Bombay two hours later.
Yikes! If my cab driver doesn’t know the precise place I want to head to, that’s forgiveable. But for a pilot? I don’t know, spanking new airport or not, I think I’d rather not land in Hyderabad in the near future. I’m nervous enough of take-offs and landings, without having to worry about the pilots’ lack of info as well.
On the final approach to land at Hyderabad’s new airport at Shamshabad, pilots of several flights got verbal warnings from flight computer that the aircraft is too low and that they should pull up immediately.
Pilots of a number of aircraft descending to land at Shamshabad are having nervous moments minutes before touchdown as some airlines are yet to feed the topographical, terrain and procedure into flight-management computers (FMC) of their fleets.
Photo: HIA
Tags: airlines, airports, Asia, asia diving, asia-holidays, asia-hotels, asia-travel, aviation, hyderabad, IndiaRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Getting There and Away : Asia, India
1 opinion for New Hyderabad Airport
The Toronto Traveler
Mar 28, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Yeah, that really is quite remarkable. I would think it would be in the pilot’s job description to keep up to date on things like that, especially if they’re flying that route regularly, which is the implication I got from the quotes you posted.
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