Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd

HAL

flight number 1427

Kempegowda International Airport

Ministry of Civil Aviation

VIP flights and airforce

military aircraft

helicopters.

The plane which had flown in from Pune was running out of fuelOn Thursday night, a major air disaster was averted thanks to) opening its runway to a commercial flight for the first time in seven years.The emergency landing by Air Asia Pune-Bengaluru () with 155 passengers and seven crew members on board was accommodated at HAL strip.The plane, which left Pune at 7.40 pm, was running out of fuel after it reached Bengaluru skies to land at 9.10 pm at theas scheduled but was denied clearance due to air traffic congestion. In normal circumstances, it would have been diverted to Chennai airport, an aerial distance of 280-odd km and flying time of 50 minutes. But Chennai airport had its own set of problems, with its main runway chipped and unusable for flight touchdowns.Consequently, nine flights which were to land in Chennai were diverted to Bengaluru, and hence the congestion at KIA.Since the Air Asia aircraft was hovering for several minutes, the fuel was running out and it needed immediate refuelling or a place to land. The next best option was HAL, which was the main airport of Bengaluru till 2008.''The Air Asia flight could not hold up for a longer time. HAL airport authorities were alerted. A quick decision was taken by them to permit the flight to land and refuel. Any delay could have resulted in a disaster. The flight landed at 9.35 pm, refueled and departed to KIA at 11 pm.This was the first commercial aircraft landing after seven years,’’ a top source in HAL told Bangalore Mirror.No passenger was allowed to alight at HAL, and had to wait till 11 pm till the flight landed at KIA.HAL airport, with 10,850 feet runway, is, for the last seven years, just a testing facility of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and for the armed forces. The airport was closed for commercial civil aviation abiding by a clause in the agreement signed between the erstwhile BIAL and thestating that no other civil airport should operate within a 150-km radius of the new airport.The old airport handlesandAccording to officials, on an average, HAL airport accommodates 60-70 movements a day. Non-scheduled operators like private/personal aircraft that pay rentals to HAL to use its runway. There are 126 non-scheduled operators permitted by the Director General of Civil Aviation of which nine are from Karnataka including GMR Aviation, Jupiter Capital, Sobha Puravankara Aviation, Deccan Charters, Aviators India, etc.