Radar controller’s corrective action averted IndiGo planes' mid-air collision: DGCA

Two IndiGo flights that took off from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on January 9 averted a mid-air collision after a radar controller took corrective action, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a preliminary report.

While flight 6ED 455 bound for Kolkata had 176 passengers and six crew, the Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar flight 6E 246 had on board 238 passengers and six crew. The breach of separation, the report said, was not reported by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The breach occurs when the minimum mandatory vertical or horizontal distance is crossed in the airspace.

On January 9, flights were taking off from the airport’s north runway and landing on the south runway, the report said. The breach happened when an official in charge of the runway opted to use only the north runway for both take-offs and landings, without communicating this to the south tower controller.

Since there was no coordination, both the south and north tower controllers gave the go-ahead for the flights to take off. Allowing simultaneous take-offs was a clear breach of separation, according to the DGCA.

It was noticed just in time by the approach radar controller that both the aircraft were flying towards each other. The official immediately took corrective action and avoided a mid-air collision, the DGCA report said. The DGCA is probing why this breach was not reported by the AAI.

The two runways are too close and the distance is not safe enough for parallel and simultaneous take-offs and landings. Operational safety mandates that a stipulated time difference has to be maintained between flight movements.

The two aircraft pilots were not aware of the danger till the flights reached an altitude of 3,000 ft and were alerted. The flight to Kolkata then took a left turn while the Bhubaneswar-bound flight turned to the right.

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