Alert pilot averts collision

Chennai: Nearly 150 people on Kingfisher Airlines Airbus IT 212 had a narrow escape on Sunday after another aircraft crossed its path while it was taxiing on the runway before takeoff at the IG domestic airport in New Delhi, said a passenger.
“The Delhi-Bangalore flight, scheduled at 3.10 pm was delayed by 30 minutes and began taxiing around 3.40 pm. Minutes later, as we watched from the window, another aircraft crawled across the runway in front of our plane, barely 50 metres away,” said Avinash Kumar, manager, Bosch.
“The pilot probably applied the brakes and prevented a collision. Screaming air hostesses told us to keep our heads down,” Kumar told Express.The IT 212 was brought back to base and the thoroughly shaken up passengers got down.
The plane finally left Delhi at 5 pm and reached Bangalore two hours later, said Kumar.
There was no official word on the aircraft that had crossed the IT 212’s path.
29/12/08 Shobha Mathur/ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, Kingfisher Dec 2008, Safety Dec 2008