A major mishap was averted on Friday after two aircraft came face to face at the runway at Delhi airport. One plane belonged to Air India while the other belonged to Indigo Airlines. The Air Traffic Control's (ATC) timely communication prevented the mishap from happening.
Air India Delhi-Goa Flight AI156 was about to take off from runway 28 at 11:15 am when the ATC asked the pilot to stop and come back to the bay, Air India sources told the Press Trust of India (PTI). There were 122 passengers onboard the plane, which finally took off for Goa at 12:50 pm.
IndiGo's Ranchi-Delhi Flight 6E398 landed on the same runway a few minutes later.
"AI aircraft was asked to reject take off as per normal protocol. No collision issue, no infringement, nowhere safety was compromised," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was quoted by ANI as saying.
This is not the first time flights have come face to face at the Delhi airport.
In December 2016, a major accident was averted when two aircraft — one belonging to IndiGo and the other to SpiceJet — came face to face on the runway at the Delhi airport.
The IndiGo flight, that had arrived from some other destination, had just landed at the airport while the Spice jet flight was about to take off when the incident happened. A miscommunication with the ATC had led to the close shave between the two planes.
The matter was then reported to the DGCA.
More details are awaited.
