CHENNAI: Though the second shorter runway at Chennai airport is being extensively used, due to taxiway work near the main runway, it does not have the adequate safety buffer zone on either end leaving no space for evasive action in case the plane does not have the required height during take-off or landing.The Trichy incident, in which the underbelly of an Air India plane was lacerated after it hit the Instrument landing System (ILS) antenna and the airport compound wall while take-off, shows that if the pilot is not able to lift-off on time there is little space to maneuver to safety, especially when the runway is short.If a similar incident happens at Chennai airport, there is hardly any space for the pilots to handle the plane in a safe manner on the second runway.A senior pilot said, "Rejecting a take-off while on a short runway can be near impossible. The Air India pilots probably might have lifted off at the last minute to avoid a possibility to reject take-off."Former pilot and air safety expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan said a safety buffer was usually provided by reducing the usable portion of the runway so that there is some space for the pilots to prevent incidents. "But that may not be adequate. In case of a second runway, the metro rail line, the GST Road and a petrol pump, on one end of the second runway is a huge risk," he added.Though the second runway was extended across Adyar river to make it longer and suitable for operating wide-body planes, the plans went awry after metro rail wanted space inside the airport to build its line below the surface. The metro rail line veers into the airport for a few metres before it comes up and veers back over GST Road between Nanganallur Road station and Meenambakkam. This alignment has led to further curtailing of usable space on the second runway.Ranganathan said AAI might have to go in for EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System) though it might be expensive because the required safety space could not be provided. EMAS will include bollard kinds of materials or crushable concrete platform which can arrest the speed of a plane when it runs out of a runway. Federal Aviation Administration has suggested EMAS to airports because many of the airports were built much before the new safety requirement of 1,000ft land on either end of the runway was implemented.Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started to use the second runway extensively during the day as the main runway is closed for operation for almost five hours to build taxiways. But only narrow-body planes like A320, B737 and ATR and smaller planes are allowed to ply.Pilots say the runway was also built on an incline from the Manapakkam-end to the GST Road-end and it has a concave shape. The portion of the runway across the river was raised to prevent flooding of the runway during rain.A senior official of AAI said there was no violation of safety parameters for either of the runways. "But there were restrictions because the airport is situated in a developed urban area," he added.AAI has been asking the state government for land on the Manapakkam-end of the second runway for setting up approach lights and land on the Guindy-end of the main runway for a safety buffer zone, a requirement for making the runway CAT III compliant. This compliance will allow planes to land at low altitude even when there is poor visibility."These requests show that we need more space to have comfortable operations on the runway at a time when more planes have to be accommodated," said an official.

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