Another catastrophe was averted at Mumbai airport on Friday. More than 500 persons aboard two planes had a narrow escape after a Kingfisher aircraft was cleared to land on a runway where a SpiceJet plane was stalled due to a technical snag. Luckily, the error was discovered in time by air traffic control (ATC), which instructed the landing Kingfisher aircraft to perform a go-around. The pilots of both aircraft followed ATC instructions.
According to airport officials, at around 9 pm on Thursday the Chennai-bound SpiceJet flight SG 206, with 109 people on board, was taking off from runway 27 at the domestic airport when the plane developed a technical snag. This development was communicated to the ATC and takeoff was aborted.
However, before the aircraft could be moved off the runway, Kingfisher flight IT 318 from New Delhi, which had been given clearance, approached the same runway. The Kingfisher aircraft was about to land when the potential for disaster was discovered by ATC. A Kingfisher spokesperson said there were 157 passengers and eight crew members on board the aircraft at the time. “The ATC requested the captain of the Kingfisher aircraft to perform a go-around. The captain immediately complied with the instructions and was re-vectored for a fresh approach. The aircraft landed shortly thereafter,” the spokesperson said. A SpiceJet spokesperson said the pilots of both aircraft followed instructions of the ATC. The SpiceJet flight, scheduled for departure at 8.50 pm, took off at 11.58 pm, he added. Airport officials were quick to dismiss the incident as routine and thoroughly unimportant. “There has been no lapse or negligence anyone’s part. It is standard procedure to clear an aircraft for landing on a runway while another is taking off from the same runway. There is always a distance of two nautical miles between the two aircraft at such times. All parties involved have followed the standard procedure,” said an official.