A near-miss in Mumbai airport
Mumbai (PTI): In a major scare in Mumbai airport, a possible collision was averted on Monday when a Delhi-bound Air India aircraft with 150 passengers on board applied emergency brakes and aborted take-off after it sighted a helicopter of the Presidential fleet landing on the runway.
The pilot of IC-866, an Airbus A-321 aircraft, aborted take off when he saw the helicopter landing on the runway he was about to use and eyewitnesses later said they noticed smoke from the tyres, one of which burst on the impact of the emergency braking.
There was no official word on whether President Pratibha Patil was on board this helicopter, which was part of a three-chopper fleet that had ferried her from the naval base 'INS Kunjali' to the airport for onward flight to Gondia in Vidarbha in Maharashtra by a Boeing 737.
Immediately there appeared to be a blame-game among different agencies, with the captain of the passenger aircraft wondering how the helicopter was allowed to land when he was taking off.
The Air Force maintained that the pilot of the helicopter was "meticulously following the directions of the Air Traffic Control".
The Civil Aviation authorities, however, said the ATC noticed the movement of the Air India aircraft on the active runway 27 and asked it to immediately apply brakes and exit through the taxiway. The aircraft exited immediately and the helicopters landed safely.
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