India Orders Mumbai Airport Probe

New Delhi: India's aviation regulator said Sunday it has begun an inquiry into aborted takeoffs of planes of flag carrier Air India and Jet Airways (India) Ltd. earlier in the day at Mumbai's international airport as the aircraft could have collided as they were rolling on the two separate but diagonal runways.
"The Jet plane was given takeoff clearance at runway 14 and Air India was asked to line up on runway 27," Naseem Ahmad Zaidi, director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Jet began takeoff and somehow the Air India also started rolling at the same time. However, the tower noticed and asked the Air India plane to stop," Mr. Zaidi said, adding that the Jet Airways pilot also aborted takeoff when he heard the tower's instructions to the Air India pilot.
"According to preliminary information, the Air India pilot had not been told to takeoff," Mr. Zaidi said.
The Jet aircraft had already passed the crossing point of the two diagonal runways and the two aircraft "were never near each other," Mr. Zaidi said. "There seems to have been some misunderstanding, and the pilots have been called in for an inquiry."
An Air India spokesman denied media reports that the incident was a near miss. Jet Airways said its pilot aborted takeoff as a precautionary measure.
01/06/09 Nitin Luthra/Wall Street Journal, USA

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009, Jet Airways Jun 2009, NACIL Jun 2009, Safety Jun 2009