This Article is From Jun 04, 2010
Alert ATC averts mishap at Mumbai airport
Mumbai: For the second time in 10 days, a major disaster was averted at the airport in Mumbai when an alert Air Traffic Control (ATC) asked a Kingfisher flight to do a go-around as it was about to land after a SpiceJet plane got stuck on the runway.
About 270 persons including the crew members were on both the planes when the incident happened last night.
A SpiceJet flight SG 206 (Mumbai-Chennai) with 109 passengers and three infants on board was about to take-off from runway 27 at around 2100 hours last night when it developed a technical snag, a week after a similar incident here.
This was around the same time a Kingfisher Airlines flight from New Delhi was in the process of landing on the same runway.
However, the ATC, just in the nick of time, asked the pilot of the Kingfisher plane to do a go-around till the runway was cleared for landing, thereby preventing a mishap.
"Shortly before the Kingfisher Airline flight IT 318 was to land at Mumbai Airport, the ATC requested the captain of the flight to do a go-around. The Captain immediately complied with the ATC instruction and was revectored a fresh approach," the spokesperson said.
The aircraft, which was coming from Delhi with 147 passengers and eight crew, landed at Mumbai Airport shortly thereafter, he said.
A SpiceJet spokesperson said that the commander of the aircraft just followed the ATC instructions. "SpiceJet followed all instructions of the ATC and so did the Kingfisher Airline," the spokesperson said.
A DGCA source said that as per allowed ATC norms, the SpiceJet flight abandoned take-off on runway 27 due to a technical snag and vacated via number N4 and went back to bay.
"Kingfisher flight Delhi-Mumbai was advised to go-around and landed after the runway was cleared," the source said.
On May 27, a major disaster was averted at the airport here as a Jet Airways plane was asked to abort landing at the last minute after an IndiGo aircraft entered the runway.