Near miss at Mumbai: Flight about to land as another waits to go
By IANSFriday, June 4, 2010
MUMBAI - A potential disaster was averted early Friday when a flight was cleared for landing while another plane was waiting for take-off on the same runway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here, airport sources said.
A Chennai-bound Spicejet flight (SG-206) with 201 passengers was cleared for take-off shortly after 1.30 a.m. but the flight commander detected some technical snag and informed the air traffic control (ATC).
The ATC instructed the commander to wait there while assistance was called. However, by that time, the ATC had already cleared for landing a Kingfisher Airlines flight (IT-318) arriving here from New Delhi. The Kingfisher flight too had some 200 passengers on board, an airport official said.
As the Spicejet aircraft was still on the runway, the ATC immediately directed the Kingfisher flight to do a go-around over the airport; the commander complied with the direction.
Shortly after the Spicejet aircraft cleared the runway, the other aircraft was given fresh clearance for landing.
