This is the second time that passengers have had a close shave at the Delhi airport recently.
A major accident was averted at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Wednesday morning after an IndiGo plane entered the wrong taxiway and almost collided with a Jet Airways plane that was stationed there.
Consequently, Runway 28 was shut for about an hour, leading to chaos and delays in several scheduled flights.
This is the second time that passengers have had a close shave at the Delhi airport recently.
According to officials, both IndiGo’s 6E 719 Delhi-Vizag flight and the Jet Airways flight were preparing for take-off. “While taxing from taxiway C to Runway 28 for departure, the IndiGo plane missed the runway centre line and found itself taxing towards taxiway W, where Jet Airways’ B737 aircraft was stationed for take-off,” an official said. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) then asked the aircraft to stop at a safe distance.
Officials said the IndiGo plane was not in a position to turn around and, therefore, keeping in mind the safety of passengers and the aircraft, all the required safety precautions were taken. The aircraft finally departed after a delay of around 50 minutes.
In the meantime, between 5.45 am and 6.35 am, Runway 28 remained non-operational, leading to flight delays and many diversions.
An IndiGo spokesperson said: “While taxing for departure with Runway Visual Range of 125 m at Delhi airport, the IndiGo flight missed the runway centre line due to low visibility and found itself taxing towards taxiway W, where the Jet Airways aircraft was stationed. Keeping in mind the safety of passengers and the aircraft, the captain in command took the decision to switch off the engines and pushed back to line up on Runway 28, while following ATC instructions at all times.”
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