The civil aviation authorities are looking into what led an Air Malta plane to brake suddenly and abort take-off at Luqa airport, leaving passengers shaken but not hurt.
The plane was flying to Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Friday morning.
A Transport Malta spokesman confirmed with the Times of Malta that the incident was an aborted take-off.
An Air Malta spokesman said the pilot had already submitted an internal safety report as was standard procedure.
The matter was being investigated together with the civil aviation authorities, he said.
A passenger who was on the plane said the flight was in the process of departing on time at about 7.35am.
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“The aircraft was gathering speed down the runway and approaching take-off speed when the pilot suddenly applied the brakes with full force. The entire aircraft shuddered from the sudden deceleration that also caused most of the passengers to reach to the back of the seat in front of them to protect themselves as they lurched forward,” the passenger, who preferred to remain anonymous, said.
The passenger felt it was a credit to the captain and the flight crew that the aircraft did not veer off the runway.
“One shudders to think what might have happened had the runway been wet or if the brakes had failed,” the passenger added.
One of the plane’s brakes had to be changed before it could finally take off at about 9.15am.
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The passenger said that, moments after the aircraft came to a halt, the pilot informed those on board that “another aircraft was on a ‘go-round’ and crossed KM612’s path.”
He said they would remain on the runway for some time to allow the brakes to cool off.
As is standard procedure, the aircraft was then directed to a location off the runway in order to be inspected by the engineering crews.
The Air Malta spokesman said the crew followed all instructions given by air traffic control, adding that what happened was standard operation procedure in aviation and was conducted “to maintain safe distance separation between aircraft”.