Major accident averted: Air India, Air India Express planes come face-to-face on runway at Mumbai airport
At Mumbai airport, an Air India flight nearly collided with an Air India Express plane on the same runway. The take-off was aborted on air traffic control's advice, preventing what could have been a serious incident. The event took place around 10 pm on Tuesday.
One Air India and another Air India Express planes came face-to-face at the Mumbai airport on the same runway on Tuesday evening. The Air India plane managed to abort its take off on the instructions of the air traffic controller, thus averting what could have been a major accident, ANI reported citing sources familiar with the matter.
The incident occurred at around 10 pm. The Air India Express aircraft was yet to vacate the runway post landing when the Air India aircraft, which was bound for Delhi, was preparing to take off from the same runway, the report revealed.
In a statement, an Air India spokesperson said the take-off run was aborted following instructions from the air traffic controller.
"The crew operating flight AI816 from Mumbai to Delhi on July 7 discontinued the take-off run after receiving an instruction to do so from the Air Traffic Control and returned to the bay," the Air India spokesperson said in the statement.
Air India flight AI816 from Mumbai to Delhi was to be operated with a wide-body Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, while the Air India Express flight AIX1547 that landed from Siliguri was operated with the narrow-body Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane, ANI reported citing sources.
The spokesperson also said that the aircraft would be undergoing necessary tests and checks as per standard operating procedures, adding that an alternative arrangement was being made to fly the passengers to their destination at the earliest.
Air India-IndiGo plane came on same taxiway at Ahmedabad airport
In a similar incident, on 24 June, an Air India plane came in front of an IndiGo aircraft on the same taxiway at the Ahmedabad airport.
The Air India plane had taken a wrong turn while taxiing towards the parking bay after landing from Mumbai, PTI reported.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) later issued a detailed statement on the incident and said that it was investigating the incident.
It explained that the Air India A320 aircraft VT-TQV operating flight AI 2493 from Mumbai landed on runway 23 at the Ahmedabad airport.
After clearing runway via taxiway 'C', the aircraft continued on taxiway 'P' instead of taking right turn on taxiway 'G' towards international apron.
"Crew of Air India immediately stopped the aircraft on taxiway 'P'. Approximately at the same time Indigo A320 aircraft VT-IST operating flight 6E 5160 (Ahmedabad-Mumbai) was taxiing on taxiway 'P' for its departure.
"The Indigo aircraft also stopped on taxiway 'P'. Both the aircraft had sufficient distance between them. The Air India aircraft was towed to parking stand," the watchdog said.
IndiGo later issued a statement, saying, “Both aircraft came to a halt at a safe distance from each other. The other aircraft was subsequently towed away, and our flight departed and landed safely at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai.”
With agency inputs