Cargo plane on runway, A-I flight asked to take off

New Delhi: The IGI airport on Saturday morning witnessed another lapse on the runway which could have turned serious. Around 6:40 am, an international cargo flight landed on the main runway.
Soon after touching down, an Air India plane waiting to take off was asked to line up on the main runway as is the practice, but the cargo flight was rather slow and could not clear the place in time.
Meanwhile, according to sources, the Air India flight was cleared for take-off despite the fact that there was another plane on the runway. The Air India flight moved some distance and then perhaps saw the other aircraft and took a left turn to vacate the runway on the "D taxiway".
While airport officials termed it as a serious breach, ATC sources said that the Air India plane was asked to vacate the runway so that a plane lined up for landing could touch down first.
This is the third such incident where two moving planes were on the runway at the same time at IGI in the past few months.
30/07/06 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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