Tractor breaks down near Patna airport runway, holds up Indigo flight in sky

PATNA: A tractor stuck on the flanks of a runway of the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport led to a 40-minute delay in the landing of an IndiGo flight from Kolkata to Patna on Friday morning, people familiar with the matter said.
“A tractor, engaged in grass cutting, got stuck alongside the runway within the safety margin of wing clearance of an aircraft from air traffic controller’s point of view, leading to around 15-20 minutes delay in flight operation on Thursday morning,” said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) requesting anonymity.
“The tractor collapsed in the wet, muddy area of land and it took around 15-20 minutes to tow it away. Initially, we tried to remove it with a normal vehicle but then had to use a heavy excavator to pull it out, which took some time,” the official said.
Dr Satyajit Sinha, who was on the Indigo flight from Kolkata, said the flight landed at about 7:50am and was 40 minutes behind schedule.
According to flight tracking website, Flightstats.com, the flight (IndiGo 6E 7085) was 43 minutes late.
“The pilot made in-flight announcement four times that a tractor has broken down along the runway of Patna Airport, as we circled over the airport. That it would be a while before we are able to land, until then we will be flying over Patna,” said Dr Sinha, quoting the pilot.
Officials said other flights were not impacted due to the stalled tractor.
Patna airport caters to around 80 aircraft movement (take-off and landing) in a day.