Mumbai: In the span of about 30 seconds, an Air India Express aircraft with about 90 passengers on board created a double scare at Singapore's Changi airport on Monday. First, its pilot did not wait for the vital take-off clearance from the air traffic controller concerned. As the Boeing 737-800 aircraft sped along the runway for a take-off, the alarmed air traffic control officials hauled up the pilots and ordered them to stop. The jet had reached the critical speed of 260 kmph and was seconds away from lifting off the runway when the pilot pulled the throttle back to abort the take-off.
It was a highly controversial move, fraught with risk, as take-offs cannot be aborted at such high speeds without putting the aircraft and its occupants at risk. It did not end badly though, as the pilots could bring the aircraft to a halt before it reached the runway end. Had it been a short runway or a wet one, the aircraft could have gone off the runway. The airline has grounded both the pilots and an investigation is on. An Air India Express spokesperson confirmed the incident. The matter has once again raised questions about the training standards in Air India Express. The airline was lambasted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in a recent audit for its poor training practices.
"A Boeing 777 aircraft had just departed from runway 02 C and so take-off clearance to the next aircraft would have been given only after a span of two minutes," said a source. But the Air India Express pilots, operating the Singapore-Trichy flight IX-681, for reasons not yet known, decided to take off from the said runway before obtaining the mandatory go-ahead from the air traffic controller. "A Boeing 737 aircraft takes about 30 seconds to go from zero to lift-off speed, which would have been about 276 kmph, in this case," said a source.
26/01/12 Manju V/Times of India
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