Close shave for Somnath

Passengers of a Jet Airways Kolkata-Delhi flight, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, had a narrow escape after the aircraft had to abort landing at the last moment.

Passengers of a Jet Airways Kolkata-Delhi flight, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, had a narrow escape after the aircraft had to abort landing at the last moment.

HT Image

The incident happened at around 7.30 pm on Sunday when the flight was about to land at the new runway (29/11) of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Airport sources said that the pilot had got the clearance from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) to land but the pilot saw that another aircraft was still at the runway.

A China Eastern Airlines aircraft that landed before the Jet airways flight was yet to vacate the runway. The pilot immediately aborted the landing and ascended and informed the ATC. The plane landed back safely at the runway after about ten minutes.

The incident led to panic among passengers. “The pilot told us that a China Airlines plane was at the runway,” Speaker Somnath Chatterjee told HT.