According to sources, the flight commander, Captain K Rodrigues, has been taken off flying duties pending an inquiry by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Officials of the DGCA have also removed the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder for investigation.

Sources said Rodrigues aborted take-off when one of the two engines failed to pick up power. When he applied the brakes, the jerk caused the nose landing gear to collapse. The aircraft went down on its nose and skid off the runway, coming to a halt after it got stuck in the earth beside the runway.

Sources added that passengers had a fortunate escape, as the mishap occurred when the plane was yet to gather speed on its take-off run. Airport fire brigade and officials of the Airports Authority ofIndia (AAI) rushed to the spot, and passengers were offloaded with the help of ladders. They were later flown to Indore by another Boeing 737 aircraft of the airline.

Following the incident, the runway 09/27 was closed, and at least 16 incoming flights of Indian Airlines and Jet Airways were diverted to Ahmedabad, Goa, Hyderabad and Bangalore. An Indian Airlines spokesman said seven incoming flights were diverted and six outgoing services were held up leading to delays in other flights as well.

Authorities opened up the alternate runway 14/32, which is used only for emergencies but normal operations were resumed on the main runway after the grounded aircraft was towed away after nine hours at 5.30 pm.

General manager Public Relations of Jet Airways, A K Shivanandan, however maintained that there was no problem with the nose wheel. ``The plane just went off the runway as the pilot applied sudden brakes to abort takeoff.

There was absolutely no damage to the aircraft and all landing gears wereintact,'' he told Express Newsline.

Meanwhile, a Bangalore-Sharjah bound cargo Boeing 727 flight of Hinduja-Lufthansa landed safely amidst full emergency measures on the alternate runway after an inflight engine shut down.