Air India, AI Express Planes Come Face-To-Face On Same Runway At Mumbai Airport

Mumbai: A major aviation disaster was narrowly averted at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Tuesday evening after two passenger aircraft came face-to-face on the same active runway.

An Air India flight, accelerating for its departure, had to abruptly abort its take-off roll following an urgent, last-minute intervention by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower.

The incident occurred at approximately 10 PM. According to airport sources, Air India Express flight AIX1547, a narrow-body Boeing 737 MAX 8 arriving from Siliguri, had just touched down and was still taxiing to clear the runway.

At the same time, Air India flight AI816, a massive wide-body Boeing 777-300ER bound for Delhi, was lined up and had commenced its high-speed take-off run on the exact same strip.

Realising that the landing aircraft had yet to vacate the operational zone, air traffic controllers issued immediate instructions to the departing Air India cockpit crew to discontinue their take-off. The pilots executed an emergency rejected take-off, managing to bring the heavy wide-body jet to a halt before it reached lift-off speed, averting a catastrophic collision.

An Air India spokesperson later confirmed the incident in an official statement, noting that the crew of flight AI816 immediately complied with the ATC directive to discontinue the take-off run. Following the emergency stop, the aircraft safely taxied off the runway and returned to the parking bay.

As per standard operating procedures, the Boeing 777 must undergo mandatory technical checks to inspect its braking and operating systems after enduring the extreme stress of a high-speed aborted takeoff. To minimise inconvenience, the airline announced that alternative travel arrangements were being made to fly the stranded passengers to Delhi at the earliest.

While both airlines confirmed that all passengers and crew members on both flights were entirely safe, the exact number of people on board the two aircraft could not be immediately verified. Aviation regulatory bodies, including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), are expected to launch a formal investigation into the communications and positioning data to establish exactly how both planes were permitted on the active runway simultaneously.

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