Alert ATC averts mishaps
Deja vu: In one day, three possible accidents avoided
For the second time in 10 days, a major disaster was averted at the Mumbai airport 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 onboard both the planes when the incident occurred on Thursday night.
A SpiceJet flight SG 206 (Mumbai-Chennai) with 109 passengers and three infants onboard was about to takeoff from runway 27 at around 9 pm on Thursday night when it developed a technical snag, a week after a similar incident occurred here.
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 the 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 re-vectored a fresh approach,” the spokesperson said.
The aircraft, which was coming from Delhi with 147 passengers and eight crew members, landed at the 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.
‘Priority landing’ by AI plane at Delhi airport
New Delhi, Agencies: An Air India Regional plane safely made a ‘priority landing’ at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here as it was running low on fuel, an airport official said. The Pathankot-Ludhiana-Delhi flight was scheduled to first land at Ludhiana but couldn’t do so due to bad weather.
“The weather was not suitable for landing at Ludhiana, so after circling for a few minutes in Ludhiana airspace the pilot decided to come to Delhi,” the official.
“Due to the plane’s low fuel availability, the pilot requested the ATC for a priority landing,” the official said, adding the pilot was allowed to land at Delhi airport at 3:35 pm. All the passengers onboard the flight were safe, the official said.
AA jet makes emergency touchdown
New Delhi, PTI: An Alliance Air (AA) plane, with 32 people onboard, landed here on Friday under emergency conditions after officials at Pathankot airport found pieces of rubber on the tarmac as it took off for Delhi and alerted the ATC.
The aircraft landed at the Indira Gandhi International airport safely after the emergency exercise was set in motion, with ambulances and fire-brigades positioned along the runway here, airport sources said.
When it took off from Pathankot, some pieces of rubber were found on the runway there. “As part of the routine procedure, the ATC at Delhi was alerted and an emergency was declared,” the sources said. Air India spokesperson said the aircraft made a normal and safe landing.
