contingency plan SOS! Reopen HAL

contingency plan SOS! Reopen HAL
AMIT S. UPADHYE
DC | BENGALURU


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Businessmenand travellers heading into Bengaluru on Friday morning found that their entire day was disrupted as Bengaluru International Airport diverted four flights to Chennai following a maintenance work at the Air Traffic Control.
Travellers, aviation experts and the city’s cognoscenti criticised the move to divert flights when the city has another airport at HAL which is still operational.

“HAL airport must be made operational during such emergencies. A skeletal team works at HAL where several VVIP flights land regularly even after the airport closure,” said an expert.

BIA officials disagreed.

“The HAL airport is nonsterile and we cannot take the risk of landing passenger flights there.

Domestic flights which require urgent landing can be diverted to HAL, provided the airport is fully operational with security cover, x-ray screening and other essential departments.” But that still does not explain why HAL cannot be used during an emergency.