Confusion prevailed at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport on Friday after an Emirates flight bound for Dubai took off and a Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Colombo landed in the same runway within a minute.
The Emirates flight EK 521 with 241 passengers took off from the runway 32 at 11.10 a.m. as scheduled to Dubai. A top airport official told The Hindu that Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL 161 with 154 passengers from the island nation’s capital landed in the same runway at 11.11 a.m.
The flight from Colombo was scheduled to land here at 8.30 a.m. and return at 9.30 a.m. The flight of Sri Lankan Airlines from Colombo was delayed on Friday, sources said
Although flight landing and taking off from the same runway at an interval of one minute is nothing new in major airports, take-off and landings in the same runway and that too in an interval of one minute are not common. “The airport authorities have sought report into the incident” following reports that it was an air miss, he said.
It is for the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to judge if the incident is an air miss, whether the security of the passengers was jeopardized and whether there was any laxity on the part of the Air Traffic Control. “It is for the DCGA to order an inquiry based on the report that will be given to him by the airport authorities”, the official said.
Airport sources said the passengers and the crew of the Emirates flight were not aware of this and the flight is on it way to Dubai. The flight from Colombo landed safely.
Keywords: plane mishap
