india

Updated: Sep 01, 2019 21:07 IST

An Air Asia flight was asked to abort its take-off as a stray dog veered into the runway of the Goa Airport. The flight was delayed by 45 minutes as a result of the incident.

A spokesperson for the Indian Navy, which controls flight operations at the Goa Airport which is also a Navy base, informed that the presence of a stray dog was noticed by an alert Air Traffic Controller, who “immediately informed the pilot who aborted the take off.”

Air Asia Flight 778 from Goa to Delhi that was scheduled to take off at 8:25am finally took off only at 9.15am after the runway was cleared for take off.

INS Hansa (Navy base) claims it has taken proactive steps to relocate dogs from the vicinity of the runway and that around 60 dogs were relocated in collaboration with the Department of Animal Husbandry of the Goa Airport since mid-August.

It is estimated that around 200 strays have made the Goa Airport and surrounding areas their home.

On August 13 an Air India flight from Mumbai had to abort landing and turn around at around 3am in the morning after the pilot spotted dogs on the runway and informed the Air Traffic Control.

A passenger Govind Gaonkar highlighted the incident.

“Pilot aborted landing just as he was seconds away from touch down. He went full throttle and took off again only to land again after a turn round of 15 minutes all while passengers speculating the causes. Upon enquiring with the pilot he explained that there were 5 to 6 dogs on the runway. It was absolutely annoying. Would DGCA… explain now? It was very dangerous and there could have been a plane crash,” he said.

No one was injured in either incident.