Chennai airport clarifies go-around after former minister raises safety concerns

CHENNAI: A Hyderabad-Chennai IndiGo flight was instructed to go around on Friday afternoon after a preceding flight reported a suspected bird strike, prompting a runway inspection, Chennai Airport authorities said.

Former minister P Thiaga Rajan said on X that the flight had made an aborted landing attempt and that the co-pilot later explained it was due to an ATC instruction based on “unexpected movement on the runway”.

Rajan said he had experienced aborted landings elsewhere, but they had generally been related to weather conditions. He expressed concern that such incidents could indicate “Infrastructure/ATC overload” and urged the DGCA and Ministry of Civil Aviation to analyse every such instance and draw lessons to improve runway protocols.

Responding to the post, Chennai Airport said the IndiGo Hyderabad-Chennai flight was on final approach at around 3.28pm and approximately 1 nautical mile from touchdown.

At 3.25pm, an IndiGo flight from Port Blair had landed and subsequently reported a suspected bird strike while taxiing. Following the report, a runway inspection was required to ensure the runway and associated movement area were safe for continued operations.

“The Hyderabad-Chennai arrival was instructed to go around” to facilitate the inspection, the airport said, adding that the manoeuvre was undertaken as a precautionary safety measure.

The flight subsequently continued its approach and landed safely at around 3.45pm, Chennai Airport said.