Mumbai,  April 19: In yet other incident of a near-miss at Mumbai airport, a Kingfisher Airlines aircraft had to abort takeoff at the last minute after another aircraft landed on the same runway.

Usually, an aircraft lands on a runway and then taxies to the designated terminal for its passengers to disembark. Only after the plane reaches the terminal is another aircraft cleared for takeoff from the same runway.
Sources said Kingfisher Flight IT 4123, bound for Bhavnagar with 30 passengers on board, was given takeoff permission at around 1.36 pm by Air Traffic Control. But the takeoff was aborted after the ATC realised a Go Air plane that had just landed had not yet cleared the runway and was directly in the path of the Kingfisher flight.
“Shortly after the ATC gave the Kingfisher aircraft the clearance for takeoff the captain was directed by ATC again to reject takeoff immediately. The aircraft, on its initial takeoff roll, immediately aborted takeoff at low speed in compliance with ATC instructions,” Kingfisher Airlines said in a statement.
The DGCA has ordered a probe into the incident.
When contacted, Mumbai ATC general manager M.G. Jhungare said the incident was not a serious one, and no one “can be blamed for it”. He added: “This is a pretty normal occurrence. When one aircraft lands, the other has to line up for takeoff. The Go Air aircraft landed at 1.30 pm, and since it takes a couple of minutes to vacate the runway we asked the other aircraft to prepare for takeoff. However, as soon as our ground patrollers realised the Go Air aircraft was still on the runway, we immediately instructed the Kingfisher flight to abort its takeoff,” said Mr Jhungare.
Mr Jhungare claimed the incident had not put passenger safety at stake, nor had any rule been violated. “There is no mistake on anyone’s part here. It is as simple as an incident where you suddenly see a road being blocked, and you stop a vehicle coming toward the same road. This is part of the minimum safety precautions,” he said.
 

Age Correspondent