A major accident was averted at the Cochin International Airport on Thursday evening when an aircraft aborted its landing and took off before touching down the tarmac.
Airport sources said that Indigo flight 6E 313, operating in the Delhi-Kochi sector via Hyderabad, was scheduled to land here at 5.05 p.m. but dropped its landing mid-way after its pilot realised that there was another aircraft on the runway.
“The aircraft of Oman Air was occupying the runway even as the other aircraft completed its final approach, which immediately took off on an instruction from the Air Traffic Control authorities,” the sources said.
Safe landing
The aircraft hovered over the airport for nearly half an hour and safely landed at 5.30 p.m.
Airport officials, however, denied the reports of a ‘near miss' and said that the arriving aircraft had not come dangerously close to the one already on the ground.
“The Oman Air flight WY 224 had received the clearance to take off but was waiting on the runway as the crew on board the plane detected some technical problems.
