A collision between two commercial flights was averted at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday morning. An Air India flight was asked to reject takeoff while it was taxiing at a very high speed as an IndiGo aircraft was approaching the same runway for landing.
The near-mishap took place on converging runways 27 and 28 – they merge towards the Dwarka side of the airport. The Air India aircraft was taking off towards the Dwarka side, while the IndiGo flight was landing from the Vasant Vihar side that extends towards Dwarka.
A senior Air Traffic Control officer told The Times of India, “The incoming IndiGo aircraft rejected landing at the last minute and took off again. The AI plane was also taking off in the same margin direction. Therefore, the AI pilots were asked to immediately abort take off.”
The IndiGo flight coming in from Ranchi had been cleared for touch down, but was forced to take off again after spotting the AI aircraft approaching. The aircraft finally landed 27 minutes later, NDTV reported.
The Goa-bound Air India flight had 120 people on board and was scheduled for takeoff at 11.30 am. “The AI Airbus A-320 safely stopped and had to return to the terminal for checks on the brake assembly and tyres, which is mandatory after high-speed rejects,” an official told The Times of India. After all the checks were conducted, it took off for Goa at 12.50 pm.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said there was “no safety issue, no collision issue and no infringement”. “Therefore, nowhere was safety compromised.” The pilots of both flights followed Standard Operating Procedure.
The incident took place not long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi received his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina at the Delhi airport.
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