Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Scare at IGI after two aircraft come close to a mid-air collision

- Faizan Haidar

quick thinking of an air traffic controller averted a possible collision of two aircraft at the Indira Gandhi Internatio­nal (IGI) Airport on Friday morning.

The incident took place around 11am on Friday when an Indigo flight aborted landing on Runway 27 at the last moment and decided to go around.

An Air India flight, meanwhile, was taking off from Runway 28, near Runway 27, and would have collided with the Indigo plane that was doing a go around after lifting off.

An air traffic controller, who noticed the imminent danger tion and asked the Air India plane to hard brake and abort the take-off, triggering panic among authoritie­s and passengers.

According to ATC sources, the Indigo flight was given clearance for landing but instead it decided to go around.

“Due to this confusion, the Air India flight was asked to abort the take-off as it would have led to a mid-air collision. The Air India pilot had initiated the process of take-off and had to apply the emergency brakes to stop the aircraft. Due to this, the flight had to return for maintenanc­e check as emergency brakes often result in tyre bursts. The flight later again took off at 12:50pm,” said an AI official.

According to the official AI 11.02am but came back to bay at 11.30am following the incident. The flight again pushed back at 12.50 pm and took off for Goa.

An Indigo spokespers­on downplayed the incident. “Indigo flight 6E-398, from Ranchi to Delhi, discontinu­ed an approach to Runway 27 at Delhi at low-level as per standard operating procedure and landed after a few minutes. At no point the safety was compromise­d and nor have we heard anything adverse from ATC, Delhi,” the spokespers­on said .

The aviation regulator, Directorat­e General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), confirmed that the Indigo aircraft was landing on runway 27 and did a go

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