Pilots of Jet Airways and Air India Express, who averted a possible accident at the Tiruchirappalli airport two days ago, have been taken off duty pending investigation into the incident by aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
DGCA, which has begun a probe into the November seven incident, has also taken into custody the Flight Data Recorders of the two planes to ascertain the communication data, official sources said. Maintaining that air traffic control (ATC) staff were also being questioned, they said the cockpit crew were taken off duty as a routine measure so that they were available when required for the probe.
It was a close shave on Monday afternoon when a Jet Airways flight for Chennai was about to take off and an Air India Express aircraft from Abu Dhabi landed at the same time.
There were 170 passengers on board the Air India Express flight and 59 in Jet. When the Jet pilot observed the AI Express flight approaching the runway from opposite direction and manoeuvred the flight towards left according to the standard operating procedure, the AI Express pilot also veered the flight to avoid any untoward incident.