A major accident was averted at Mumbai airport last week after an Air Astana aircraft took a wrong turn and entered an active runway where an Air India plane was accelerating towards it for take off.
At 3 p.m., on February 22, an Airbus A320 aircraft of Air Astana was preparing for take off for Almaty when, instead of taking a taxi way parallel to the active runway to queue up behind other planes for its turn to take off, it took a wrong turn and entered a taxi way that intersected the runway under use.
At the point the Air Astana aircraft crossed the active runway, Air India’s Airbus A319 aircraft had already started to speed up for take off for its flight to Doha. After reaching a speed of 40 knots, and upon seeing another aircraft intersecting its path, the Air India aircraft retarded and rejected take off and staved off a possible collision. The Air Astana plane though continued to move on the wrong path.
