Mumbai flight about to land as another waits to go

Mangalore Today

Mumbai, June 4, 2010: A potential disaster was averted at the Mumbai airport early Friday when a flight was cleared for landing while another plane was waiting to take off on the same runway, airport sources said.

A Chennai-bound Spicejet flight with 201 passengers was cleared for take-off just after 1.30 a.m. But the pilot detected a snag and told the air traffic control (ATC), who asked him to wait for help.

However, by then, the ATC had cleared for landing a Kingfisher Airlines flight from New Delhi. The Kingfisher flight too had about 200 passengers on board, an airport official said.

Realizing that the Spicejet was still on the runway, the ATC frantically directed the Kingfisher to do a go-around over the airport. The commander complied.

It was finally given fresh permission to land after the Spicejet aircraft cleared the runway.

It was the third close shave involving Indian planes in the last 10 days.

On May 26 night, the aircraft of Jet Airways and Indigo had a narrow miss at the Mumbai airport as one plane was landing while the other was still on the runway.

The same day, a Dubai-Pune Air India flight suddenly lost height, endangering another plane flying below.

On May 22, an Air India Express coming from Dubai overshot the runway at the Mangalore airport and fell off a cliff killing 158 people.