NEW DELHI: A chartered aircraft carrying Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma mistakenly landed on the wrong runway while flying from Delhi to Phalodi on Thursday, July 31. Instead of touching down at the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Phalodi as scheduled, the Dassault Falcon 2000 jet landed at the nearby civil airstrip, roughly 5 kilometers away.
According to sources, the pilots quickly realized the error and took off again from the civil runway, successfully redirecting the aircraft to the intended IAF station. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has since launched an investigation and temporarily grounded the flight crew pending inquiry.
“The CM’s flight departed Delhi at 3 p.m. on July 31. Upon arriving in Phalodi, the jet initially landed at the civil airstrip. The pilots, upon recognizing the mistake, promptly took off again and landed at the correct destination — the Phalodi Air Force Station,” said officials familiar with the matter.
After arriving at the IAF station, the Chief Minister disembarked, and later that evening, the aircraft flew him to Jaipur before returning to Delhi the same night.
The charter company operating the flight has submitted a voluntary report to the DGCA, classifying it as a “wrong airport landing incident.” The civil airstrip and the IAF base in Phalodi are close together and share similar visual characteristics, which contributed to the misidentification during approach.
“Both airstrips have similarly aligned runways and look alike from the air. The crew appears to have had inadequate pre-flight briefing regarding the proximity of two separate airfields. Proper pre-flight planning is essential, and operators must ensure pilots are fully informed to prevent such mix-ups,” said a source familiar with the incident.
The Dassault Falcon 2000 is a French-manufactured business jet capable of carrying 8–10 passengers with a range of up to 6,000 kilometers.
The incident has raised safety and security concerns, particularly regarding the potential risks if such an error were to occur in reverse — with a civil aircraft mistakenly entering restricted military airspace. Experts warn that civil runways may not support the weight and operational needs of jets like the Falcon 2000, and lack of coordination between civil and military airfields during such incidents can delay corrective measures.
Phalodi, often referred to as Rajasthan’s “salt city” due to its proximity to the Rin salt industry, lies in the buffer zone of the Thar Desert and is located near key cities such as Jodhpur, Bikaner, and Jaisalmer.
