HYDERABAD: In a slip up hours after the Shamshabad airport opened for   
   business,   
   a KLM flight from Amsterdam which was supposed to land at Hyderabad skipped the   
   airport and flew across the country first to Delhi and then to Mumbai.   
      
   Apparently the pilot knew nothing about the new airport and hovered towards   
   Begumpet only to be told that the facility had been shut. He was directed to   
   Shamshabad to which the pilot asked the Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff:   
   "Shamshabad...what's that?" The pilot first flew to Delhi where after being   
   refused permission to land, took the plane to Mumbai.   
      
   There were 220 economy class and 13 business class passengers on board when the   
   plane approached the Hyderabad skies at 1.45 am on Sunday morning. The plane   
   was   
   to fly out of Hyderabad within a few hours at 3.35 am and ferry over 230   
   passengers to Amsterdam.   
      
   Sources said the pilot of KLM Dutch Airlines flight was unwilling to land at   
   the   
   new airport because the company headquarters at Amsterdam did not receive the   
   Notam (notice to airmen) about the closure of Begumpet and opening of   
   Shamshabad. But airport sources wondered how this was possible because the   
   Notam   
   was sent to all the airlines across the world and everybody else seems to have   
   received it.   
      
   "There was some confusion. Though the Hyderabad code 'HYD' has been formally   
   transferred to the new airport, the KLM pilot was in some confusion. So, the   
   plane did not land," the source said.   
      
   However, the officials of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, which has   
   built the new Rs 2,500-crore airport, in an effort to paper over the incident,   
   claimed that the KLM pilot did not want to take any risk by landing at a new   
   airport at a time when the weather was not good with low clouds.   
      
      
   So, who is at fault? KLM not delivering the Notam?   
   And why would Delhi refuse permission to land?   
      
   I don't like the idea of a plane attempting to land on a closed airport   
   anyway...   
      
      
   Poster   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)