a day ago
PM's VVIP aircraft makes trial landing at Trichy airport
Trichy: VVIP-3, the official aircraft used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, conducted a trial landing and take-off at Trichy International Airport on Tuesday as part of a safety exercise ahead of the PM's likely visit to Tamil Nadu on July 27.
Modi is expected to attend the Aadi Thiruvathirai festival at the Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple near Jayankondam in Ariyalur district.
Sources said the VVIP aircraft landed at Trichy around 12.10 pm and took off at 1.30 pm. As Trichy airport's runway is relatively short at 8,136 feet, it typically handles only narrow-body aircraft even for international flights. Since VVIP-3 is a wide-body aircraft with a larger size and higher carrying capacity, the trial was held to ensure safe operations.
"VVIP-3 is the longest wide-body aircraft ever to land at Trichy airport. This is also the first time the airport has handled the Prime Minister's custom-made aircraft," said S Gnaneswara Rao, director of Trichy airport. He noted that during the trial, the aircraft managed to take off using just 50% of the runway length.
Rao added that the space behind the old integrated terminal building could be used to receive the Prime Minister if authorities opt to land him in Trichy. Two years ago, the airport's taxiway was upgraded to accommodate wide-body aircraft.
