Tragedy averted in Mumbai as Jet Air-Air India planes in ‘near-miss’ incident

The Jet flight (9W012),departing for Singapore with 142 people on board,was on a take off roll when the air traffic control (ATC) asked its pilots to reject take off.

The Jet commander could not reject take off as he had gone past the decision speed,an airline spokesperson said,adding that this “did not result in an unsafe situation”.

The airport sources said when the Air India plane,coming in from Riyadh carrying about 100 people,saw the Jet aircraft taking off,he informed the ATC and did a go-around.

The sources said adequate separation between two aircraft is provided for in the ‘go-around’ procedures laid down by the airport and aviation regulator DGCA.

Typically,a ‘go-around’ procedure means when the pilot is instructed by ATC or decides on his own to go around by applying full power to the plane engines and adopt an appropriate climb altitude and airspeed.

Apart from the manual mode,many modern aircraft,including Boeing and Airbus series,use fly-by-wire systems with go-around modes that automatically set maximum available power and pitch the aircraft for a climb by using a ‘TO GA’ button.