An IndiGo flight travelling from Lucknow to Raipur narrowly escaped a potential mishap on Thursday after a monkey wandered onto the runway just as the aircraft had begun its take-off roll.
Flight 6E6521, carrying nearly 170 passengers and crew, had been cleared by Air Traffic Control and was accelerating on runway 09 from the Kanpur highway side. About 200 metres into the roll, the pilots of the Airbus A320-251N noticed a monkey on the runway and quickly aborted the take-off to prevent a collision.
After halting, the aircraft exited the runway and returned to the apron through taxiway B. The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 8:55 am, finally took off at 10:04 am following a detailed inspection of all systems.
The incident also briefly disrupted operations at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. An Air India Express flight, IX 1392, had to perform a go-around and circled Lucknow airspace twice due to concerns about the monkey on the runway.
According to an official source, this marked the first time that airport operations were temporarily affected by a monkey entering the runway zone. The animal is believed to have strayed into the airport from a mango orchard in Rahimabad.
“The runway was cleared of any monkey presence before permitting other aircraft to land or take off,” the official added.
[With TOI inputs]
Flight 6E6521, carrying nearly 170 passengers and crew, had been cleared by Air Traffic Control and was accelerating on runway 09 from the Kanpur highway side. About 200 metres into the roll, the pilots of the Airbus A320-251N noticed a monkey on the runway and quickly aborted the take-off to prevent a collision.
After halting, the aircraft exited the runway and returned to the apron through taxiway B. The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 8:55 am, finally took off at 10:04 am following a detailed inspection of all systems.
The incident also briefly disrupted operations at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. An Air India Express flight, IX 1392, had to perform a go-around and circled Lucknow airspace twice due to concerns about the monkey on the runway.
According to an official source, this marked the first time that airport operations were temporarily affected by a monkey entering the runway zone. The animal is believed to have strayed into the airport from a mango orchard in Rahimabad.
“The runway was cleared of any monkey presence before permitting other aircraft to land or take off,” the official added.
[With TOI inputs]
