PANAJI: A Vistara flight returned to Bengaluru without landing at the Dabolim airport in Goa after the Air Traffic Controller spotted a stray dog on the runway and asked the pilot to wait. A senior official said the incident happened on Monday afternoon.

After the stray was spotted on the runway of the airport, the pilot was asked to “hold for some time” but “he preferred to return to Bengaluru,” Goa airport’s director SVT Dhanamjaya Rao told news agency PTI.

The Vistara flight left from the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru at 12.55 pm on Monday and was scheduled to land in Goa around 2.15 pm. However, after it returned to Bengaluru at 3.05 pm, it took off again at 4.55 pm and reached Goa at 6.15 pm.

In an announcement on social media, Vistara said that flight UK881 was diverted due to runway restriction at Goa airport. Two hours later, it said the flight has taken off again from Bengaluru.

Rao said there have been instances of a stray dog entering the runway once in a while, and the area is cleared immediately by the ground staff. “This is the first such incident [of flight returning] in my tenure of last one-and-a-half years,” he added.