NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday directed airport operators to regularly conduct runway friction tests, with busy ones handling over 200 flights daily to do so once a week, and remove rubber deposit from aircraft touch down points to minimise the possibility of planes skidding on landing. Arun Kumar, who recently took over as DGCA chief, took this step after a number of flights skidded on landing on wet runways this monsoon following which he had ordered a detailed audit of airlines and airports.
“Surface condition of runways has a major safety impact on aircraft operations, in particular on aircraft landing performance. Low friction levels and contaminated runway surface can result in aircraft over-runs and run-off incidents… By adopting a systematic approach to measurement of runway surface friction characteristics, degradation of runway surface friction can be determined…
