Surat: The Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered an investigation and a security review of all airports in the country. Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju is meeting top officials and has “taken very serious note of the incident”, said sources.
There have been many report of security lapses in the recent past, which question the efficiency of the flying authority in nation. While the accidents and lapses are only going up with every passing day, it seems to be a good move by the government.
It comes after a SpiceJet flight with 140 passengers on board hit a buffalo that strayed onto the runway at the airport in Surat on Thursday. The engine of the Boeing 737 aircraft was badly damaged by the hit and the take-off had to be aborted. The buffalo was reportedly “sucked into the engine”. Â
The flight was about to take off for Delhi at around 7 pm when the incident took place.
SpiceJet said the buffalo was invisible against a dark background. The pilot reportedly spotted the animal “all of a sudden,” but could not avoid the collision.
“Stray animals are a growing menace in some airports. This incident has affected our regular operations and SpiceJet flights from Surat will now be suspended after this incident,” airline spokesperson Siddharth Kumar said.
Passengers were later booked on an alternate flight which had come from Mumbai and was Delhi-bound.
A passenger on the flight said he was shocked at the fact that an animal could walk into the runway. “How can they allow this to happen? We were all in panic and had to wait for two hours for another flight,” said Prabhakar Joshi.
Surat is a small airport which handles about three flights daily. The airport became operational about two years ago.