New Delhi: Two fully-loaded passenger aircraft on Tuesday came face-to-face barely 40 metres away on the taxiway at the airport here but providentially a disaster was averted after commanders of both the planes alerted the air traffic control and switched off their engines.
On a day when a Jet Airways aircraft made an about turn and its belly sunk to the ground in the Dabolim airport in Goa, a departing SpiceJet aircraft found itself in front of from an incoming IndiGo Airbus A320 in the same taxi way allegedly due to a miscommunication from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC).
The two aircraft together had 363 passengers on board when the incident took place early in the morning. Aviation regulator DGCA has started its investigation into the incident but it has not taken any “action” against anyone in this regard, sources said. Both SpiceJet and IndiGo confirmed the incident and said that at no point of time the safety of the passenger was in danger.
While the IndiGo plane arriving from Lucknow had over 176 passengers on board, the Hyderabad-bound SpiceJet aircraft was carrying 187 passengers when the incident took place, they said. According to sources, SpiceJet plane was awaiting ATC clearance for take off for over 90 minutes. The operations at the Delhi airport were hit at that time because the runway visibility range had dropped to below minima.
The SpiceJet aircraft was in the holding area, awaiting ATC clearance. However, when the clearance did not come for more than 90 minutes, the commander requested the ATC to allow the aircraft to leave the holding area for refuelling as a good amount of fuel had burnt by that time, sources said.
So when it was coming back from the holding area to the taxi way, it found the IndiGo aircraft in the same taxi way,” they said.
Sources also said that the two aircraft were at a distance of just 40 meters away from each other, in a face-to- face position. “SpiceJet flight SG 123 operating Delhi-Hyderabad was following ATC instructions at all times at the Delhi airport. While taxiing, the SpiceJet crew observed another aircraft on the same taxiway in the opposite direction. (PTI)
