30 October,2009 07:15 AM IST | | Vaidehi Limaye
It was a miraculous escape for 244 passengers at Mumbai airport last night as two aircraft came face to face on the taxiway.
At around 10.45 pm, a Kingfisher Airlines aircraft with 117 passengers on board was about to depart from the runway when an Air India Nagpur-Mumbai flight carrying around 127 fliers landed on the same runway and was speeding towards it, said an airport official.
Since the distance between both the aircraft was considerable, pilots managed to control their planes thus averting a huge disaster.
According to a senior ATC official, "The incident was a close miss. With the second runway (09270) not being strong enough to support the frequency of the flights, such landing mistakes can occur."
No official from Kingfisher or Air India were available for comment.
Noon crisis
Earlier in the day, about 100 passengers on board Air India flight 864 arriving at the New Delhi airport had a close shave when their aircraft almost landed on the runway despite a landing equipment malfunction.
The plane took off seconds before touching the runway, creating panic and confusion among passengers until they were informed that landing had been deferred by a few minutes due to a technical snag.
The plane circled the airport for about 20 minutes before landing back safely at around 12.55 pm.
Other Misses
Feb 9:u00a0There was a near-collision between President Pratibha Patil's choppers and an Air India aircraft at Mumbai airport.
Nearly 170 passengers and 10 crew members of an Air India flight had a close shave when the chopper came in its path just as the passenger jet was about to take-off.
May 31: A major disaster was averted at the Mumbai airport when two passenger aircraft proceeded for take off simultaneously from two runways, but pilots of these aircrafts managed to stop before the planes could collide.
