Leh flights cancelled as IAF aircraft blocks runway after glitches

The Leh airport was shut for operations on Tuesday after the runway was blocked by an IAF C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lifter facing technical glitches.

The Leh airport was shut for operations on Tuesday after the runway was blocked by an Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lifter facing technical glitches, said officials familiar with the matter, with the closure forcing two flights to be diverted and several more to be cancelled.

Leh flights cancelled as IAF aircraft blocks runway after glitches

The incident involving the Boeing-made heavy-lifter, imported from the United States, has drawn attention to the possible impact of such a closure on logistics supply in a sensitive sector, even as officials said contingency plans were in place to carry out operations from other air bases if required. The Leh airport, like some others in India, is a military one that is also used for passenger flights.

IAF has used the Leh airport extensively to support the military’s high-altitude deployments in Ladakh amid the dragging row with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

It wasn’t immediately clear what the technical issue plaguing the C-17 was, said an official, who added that the glitch was “not serious and is being fixed.”

“The issue is being fixed and the runway should be operational by Wednesday,” said the official.

Domestic airlines, including IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and Vistara, operate 20 flights in and out of Leh every day, according to data from airport officials. Over the past three weeks, these 20 flights carried around 4,000 people every day, showed official data.

In a tweet, Vistara said its flight UK601 from Delhi to Leh was returning to the Capital due to the runway restrictions at Leh.

Air India, which operates two daily flights to Leh, diverted one of them to Srinagar and cancelled the second flight after a notice to airmen (NOTAM) was issued due to the breakdown of the Globemaster.

While SpiceJet cancelled two of its three daily flights to/from Leh, IndiGo which operates five daily flights had to cancel all its flights to the airport.

Flightradar24, a Swedish internet-based service that shows real-time aircraft flight tracking information, also said all flight arrivals into the airport have been cancelled.

“All flights have been cancelled for today and airlines will be informed if the runway could be operational as per schedule tomorrow,” an airport official said.

IAF operates a fleet of 11 C-17 heavy lifters, with the first of these planes inducted a decade ago. The long-haul aircraft was on a routine air maintenance sortie when it landed at Leh on Tuesday morning.

In a crunch situation, the C-17 would have been removed from the runway using a tow tractor, said a second official, who also asked not to be named.

“Rushed towing, however, is avoidable as it can damage the aircraft. There was no urgent operational need to do that. In any case, we have alternate options to carry out our operational roles, if required, from other bases, including Thoise, Srinagar and Awantipur. Helicopters can also be used to set up an air bridge to move people and cargo in case of an operational exigency,” said the official.

Further, the official added, a taxi-track at the Leh airport can be used to operate fighter jets even if the runway is shut.

The IAF’s C-17s, along with Il-76s, C-130Js and An-32s, play a critical role in supporting the military’s forward deployments in the Ladakh sector. The C-17s were instrumental in transporting soldiers and military equipment to eastern Ladakh when the border row with China was at its peak in 2020.

Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), director general of the Centre for Air Power Studies, said, “It may not be possible to have two runways at some bases in the mountains due to limitations of the terrain, but the contingency of a runway closure should be factored into planning and mitigation measures should be in place for smooth operations.”

The C-17 can takeoff from a 7,000-foot airfield with 72,574kg of payload, fly 4,481km and land on a small, unprepared runway measuring less than 3,000 feet.

The four-engine plane can deliver three infantry combat vehicles or a main battle tank or a heavy-lift chopper to forward bases in a single deployment. It can airdrop 102 paratroopers and equipment.

The IAF is the largest operator of the Globemaster III outside the US.

In early May, a C-17 carried out an impressive rescue of 192 people from war-torn Sudan, with the full mission lasting almost 24 hours, with a refuelling stop at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The aircraft took off from Hindon on May 4 midnight, landed and refuelled in Jeddah that morning, then flew to Port Sudan, where it airlifted the passengers – mostly children, women and the elderly – to Ahmedabad, before flying back to the Hindon air base the same night.