Narrow escape for Air India aircraft

NI Wire

Mumbai

Mon, 09 Feb 2009: 

A huge disaster, which appeared as a major blunder from the part of Air Traffic Control, was averted this morning at the Mumbai airport when an Air India passenger aircraft forced to apply emergency breaks seeing an IAF helicopter landing on its runway.

At around 9 am, an Air India domestic flight IC 866ound for Delhi that was cleared by the authority for take-off suddenly spotted an Air Force helicopter, a part of President Pratibha Patil's convoy, when it was just to give full throttle.

The pilot was informed at the very last moment to abort its take off as a result he had to apply the emergency breaks. There were about 150 passengers on board who were later taken to Delhi by another plane, as sudden application of emergency brakes resulted in a tyre of the aircraft getting damaged.

As per reports, there were three helicopters in the President’s convey to land on the same runway but the President was not on board in the chopper which missed the runway collision. President Patil is presently on a visit to the region.

Meanwhile, an inquiry has been ordered in to the incident by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The Air Force official has claimed that their helicopters were cleared by the ATC to land on the same runway.