Mumbai: Near miss as two jets take off at once

Two private jets nearly collided after taking off at Mumbai’s international airport.

Air Traffic Control reportedly gave both pilots of the chartered jets clearance to take off from the same runway just seconds apart, an official from the Director General of Civil Aviation said.

One of the planes was from Bermuda while the other belonged to Pinnacle Air of India, the official told Indian newspaper the Deccan Chronicle.

One was heading for Aurangabad in the state of Bihar while the other was going to the capital New Delhi.

It is the second time in three months that planes have nearly collided at Mumbai airport.

On May 31, two aircraft were cleared for take off from two runways at the same time, but the pilots stopped the planes in time. Both incidents involved flights to destinations within the country.