This Jet flight was ready to take off without ATC nod

NEW DELHI: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded two Jet Airways pilots for reportedly beginning takeoff roll at IGI’s main runway without air traffic control clearance.

The incident happened on August 25 when Jet’s Boeing 777 headed to London was assigned the main runway (28) for takeoff. However, instead of waiting at line-up for the ATC clearance, the pilots of 9W 122 inadvertently entered the runway and began takeoff roll without clearance. Luckily, there was no conflicting traffic at that time.

Realising the mistake, the pilots rejected the take-off and exited the runway to return to the parking bay.

DGCA chief B S Bhullar said, “The cockpit crew (pilots) is off rostered and investigation is on.”

“Following an aborted take-off on a Delhi-London Heathrow flight last week, Jet Airways has taken its flight crew off flying duty for the purposes of investigation. As per standard procedure, the airline has reported the matter to the regulator and is fully cooperating with the ongoing process,” a Jet spokesman said.

A senior official of Airports Authority of India sought the report from Delhi operation control on the incident. According to the report, the aircraft (VT-JEM) with 337 passengers was given line up instruction for runway 28 via taxiway W at 1.24pm on August 25.

“Pilots missed taxiway W and were again asked to line up on runway 28 via intersection P1. After lining up , the aircraft started rolling without take-off clearance. ATC was warning them by now, when they rejected the takeoff, exited the runway and went back to their bay. The transcript of ATC-pilots conversation has been given to agencies probing the incident,” the report said.

On August 3, a Jet Boeing 737 at Riyadh airport tried to take-off using full power from a taxiway parallel to the runway from where it was supposed to get airborne for Mumbai. The aircraft went off paved area of Riyadh Airport.