Safety violation by Spicejet flight: ATC

The Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) office reported a case of safety violation against pilots operating a Spicejet flight carrying close to 100 passengers to Bangalore from Mumbai on Sunday.

The Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) office reported a case of safety violation against pilots operating a Spicejet flight carrying close to 100 passengers to Bangalore from Mumbai on Sunday.

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According to the report filed with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) the Spicejet aircraft entered the runway acting on a line up call meant for an Air India flight to Delhi. A pilot is supposed to get in position for take off acting on line up call. The incident took place around 11:30 am when the Air India and the Spicejet aircraft were awaiting take off clearance on adjacent taxiways November 4 and November 3 respectively.

The Spicejet aircraft (SG 151) misread the instructions from the ATC and entered the runway along with the AI plane. As a result, there were three aircraft on the runway at a time. Although none of the planes were on collision course, airport officials said that it was a safety lapse described as “runway incursion”.

“We have reported the case to the DGCA because misreading instruction from the ATC indicates a problem in a pilots’ cockpit resource management (CRM) training,” said a senior ATC official requesting anonymity.

A Spicejet spokesperson denied any lapse. “Seems there was some misunderstanding. We are awaiting more clarity from ATC, Mumbai,” said the spokesperson.