Aircraft from Kabul lands on runway meant for departures

New Delhi: A disaster was averted at Delhi’s IGI Airport on Sunday when an Afghan Ariana flight from Kabul cleared to land on a runway touched down on a nearby parallel take-off airstrip. Luckily, no aircraft was taxiing to take off.

In a written explanation sought from him, the captain of the 35-year-old Afghan Airbus A310 claimed that his aircraft “unintentionally deviated from the intended approach path” due to poor visibility and “instrument landing system (ILS) malfunction”.