Mumbai: Two small private jets could have collided with each other at the Mumbai international airport after they took off from the same runway almost simultaneously on Sunday.
An official of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the incident occurred when the Air Traffic Control(ATC) reportedly cleared the pilots of two chartered aircraft to take off around the same time from runway 27.
One of the planes was a chartered aircraft 'Challenger' from Bermuda while the other was a CRJ jet belonging to Pinnacle Air of India, the official said. One of the planes was headed for Aurangabad while the other was going to Delhi.
Sources at the airport say the two private jets had similar call signs and ATC gave clearance for one of them but the other mistook the order and took off too.
It was not immediately known how many passengers were in the two aircraft, both of which had non-scheduled operator permits. The incident happened around 1130 hrs IST, the official said.
It was the second time in three months when there was a air-miss at Mumbai airport.
On May 31, two aircraft got clearance to take off simultaneously from two runways but the pilots stopped the planes in the nick of time.
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