Two IndiGo planes avoided a mid-air collision over Bengaluru airport, which would have been fatal for hundreds of passengers on-board both airplanes, senior officials told news agency PTI.
Two domestic IndiGo flights — one from Bengaluru to Kolkata (6E455) and one from Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar (6E246), took off at the same time, from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport on 9 January.
However, the safety breach has come to light only recently, multiple news agencies reported.
DGCA Launches Probe
Senior officials of the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told news agency PTI that the incident was "neither logged nor reported", to the Airport Authority of India.
DGCA chief Arun Kumar said that a probe has been ordered, and that the regulator “shall take strictest action against those found delinquent".
According to a preliminary report, the incident took place due to a “lack of communication between radar controllers and Air Traffic Control (ATC) officers at the time of the incident”.
Bengaluru Airport has two runways - north and south. According to NDTV, the preliminary report stated that the south runway was closed, but the shift incharge of runway operations failed to inform the south tower controller.
The south tower controller gave the green signal, allowing the Kolkata-bound flight to take off. Simultaneously, the north tower controller gave permission to Bhubaneshwar-bound flight to depart.
Another official told Times of India that the flights had reached a height of 3,000 feet before a radar controller at Bengaluru airport noticed that they were on the same course.
Both pilots were alerted immediately and the aircrafts quickly swerved in opposite directions to avoid a major mishap.
A total of 426 people were on-board the two flights. While the Bengaluru-Kolkata flight carried 176 passengers and six crew, the Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar flight carried 238 passengers and six crew, as per the NDTV report.
Both the airplanes were Airbus A320 models.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI, and The Times of India)
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