Major Air Disaster Averted, Plane Told To Abort Take Off At The Last Moment

Chandigarh: A major mishap was averted when an Air Vistara flight was asked to abort its take off at the last moment to avoid crashing into an Indian Air Force plane that was landing on the same runway at the International Airport here.

Sources said the timely intervention by the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) prevented the mishap from happening when the Delhi-bound Air Vistara flight was about to take off from here yesterday after an IL-76 cargo plane of the Indian Air Force (IAF) sought permission for landing on the runway. The Air Vistara flight had 151 passengers on board and was scheduled to departure at 3.20 pm. However, it got delayed and left past 5 pm, officials said.

They said as the plane accelerated to take off, it was asked to abort and return to the gate by the ATC. After the incident, Vistara tweeted, "regret the trouble, take off was aborted as per instructions from ATC at Chandigarh airport." IAF officials said that the decision to abort take off of the private airline was taken by the ATC keeping in view the safety norms.