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Sikh pilot of
Air India averts disaster, possibly saved India’s President
WSN Network
 MUMBAI:
An Air India Sikh pilot became a hero when he slammed brakes of a
plane about to take off after spotting an Air Force helicopter
landing on the runway. There were 150 people on the plane and the
chopper was just 200 metres away.
The chopper was
part of a fleet carrying President Pratibha Patil. Pilot As Pilot S
S Kohli slammed the brakes, a tyre burst. The Mumbai airport’s air
traffic control also asked the Air India pilot to apply the
emergency brakes. All the passengers and crew on board the
helicopter and plane emerged from the incident unscathed.
President
Pratibha Patil was in one of the helicopters. It is not clear
whether the chopper that is in question was carrying her. Had Pilot Kohli made any mistake and not displayed the coolheadedness, the
plane would certainly have crashed into the helicopter that was
landing.
Civil Aviation
Minister Praful Patel said the President was in a helicopter that
landed on the runway a minute later. It was followed by a third
helicopter that landed two minutes after. The near-miss — possibly
the result of a disastrous mix-up over landing instructions that
will be investigated — occurred shortly after 9 am on Monday. The
Airbus A- 321 on Air- India flight No.IC- 866 to Delhi was on the
main runway number 27, taxiing for scheduled departure at 9.17 am.
As the plane was moving and about to accelerate, its pilot Capt S.
S. Kohli saw to his horror that a helicopter was landing on the same
runway.
This was the
first of the three helicopters in the President’s convoy that had
flown in from the INS Kunjali in Colaba. The two aircraft were only
100m apart. According to officials, the plane was revving up to a
speed of over 130 nautical miles per hour (240 kilometres per hour).
With a catastrophic crash staring at him even as his passengers were
unaware of the developments, 40- year-old Capt Kohli drew upon his
13,000 hours of flying experience to pull off a miracle. He jammed
the brakes and was able to exit through the taxiway, barely
avoiding the helicopterup ahead.
He had achieved
what had seemed doubtful a few seconds ago. All passengers had been
saved – a feat made possible in less than a minute of nervewracking
tension by one man’s calm control of the situation.
 Eyewitnesses
said the Airbus could not have been more than 30m from the
presidential elicopter, and at taxiing speed a fraction of a second
away, when he steered it to safety. At 9.18 am, the second
helicopter landed on the tarmac, while the third came in at 9.20 am.
Had Kohli not been alert, they would all have been consumed by a
huge ball of fire. Passengers on IC 866 were later accommodated on
other flights.
There were
conflicting reports about the number of passengers on the flight.
While Mumbai airport authorities said there were 150 passengers, an
Air-India spokesman in New Delhi put the number at 171. The
President’s office put out a terse statement on Monday that called
for answers to the shocking, near-fatal incident. “The President was
in one of the three choppers.
We wouldn’t like
to say in which one. She is perfectly fine and her programme went on
as scheduled,” said a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson, who was part
of Patil’s entourage. “The President’s office has asked the civil
aviation ministry and Indian Air Force (IAF) to conduct an inquiry
into the incident,” the official said. Kohli told reporters soon
after the aborted take-off that the pilot of the Indian Air Force (IAF)
helicopter belonging to the presidential convoy did not take landing
clearance from air traffic control (ATC).
11
February 2009
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