An IndiGo flight from Lucknow — headed to Raipur — was about to take off, but surprisingly, it came to a sudden halt as a monkey strayed onto the runway.
According to a report by the Times of India, IndiGo
flight 6E6521, carrying around 170 passengers, had received clearance from Air Traffic Control.
The fight had begun rolling on runway 09 from the Kanpur highway end ahead of its takeoff. Around 200 metres into the roll, the pilots of the Airbus A320-251N spotted a monkey on the runway and aborted the takeoff to avoid collision with the animal.
After this, the flight vacated the runway and returned to the apron. Originally scheduled to depart at 8.55 A.M., the aircraft eventually took off for Raipur at 10.04 A.M., following a detailed inspection of the aircraft systems, TOI reported.
According to an official sources, as cited by the outlet, this was the first time air operations were halted due to the presence of a monkey.
“The runway was cleared of any monkey presence before permitting other aircraft to land or take off,” said the official, Times of India reported.
