Indian pig makes pilot having a hard time

Some airports throughout the world suffer of geese or other birds causing stress during take-off and landing; India turns out to have pigs interfering with air traffic.

This week, a pig blocked the touch-down of a plane at Ambedkar international airport near the Indian city of Nagpur. Just before landing, the animal was seen straying on the runway.

The pilot of the plane, a flight from Mumbay with 135 passengers on board, including Maharashtra PWD minister Anil Deshmukh and senior politician Ranjit Deshmukh, spotted the animal just in time to abort landing and coming down later.

In the meantime, airport employees had to chase the animal away from the landing strip.

Third accident
This is the third instance in a fortnight when an animal obstructed flight landing at the airport, they said.

Last week, a transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) hit two pigs during landing at the runway of Nagpur's international airport, killing them on the spot, sources said.

At that time, the airport staff found carcasses of two pigs lying on the runway, apparently hit by a Russian made IL-76 aircraft which was on a routine sortie, sources said.

Deer on the runway
An indigo flight, which was about to take off from Nagpur, had experienced the same when a deer came on the runway from a thick bush behind, thereby endangering the lives of several passengers on the flight.

Though the airport has a boundary wall, it has a thick forest like growth of vegetation which was only serving as breeding ground for wild animals, sources added.

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