On the morning of January 9, two IndiGo flights escaped a mid-air collision above the Bengaluru airport shortly after take-off, according to senior officials from the aviation regulator DGCA.
According to them, the incident was not recorded in any logbooks and was not reported to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Meanwhile, DGCA chairman Arun Kumar informed that the regulator is looking into the event and will “take the harshest measures against anybody found to be delinquent.”
The two IndiGo flights – 6E455 (Bengaluru to Kolkata) and 6E246 (Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar) – were involved in a ‘breach of separation’ at Bengaluru airport, according to officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Breach of separation occurs when two aeroplanes in airspace cross the minimum vertical or horizontal spacing required.
On the morning of January 9, both of these planes took off from Bengaluru airport in less than 5 minutes, according to officials.
“After taking off, both planes were on a converging course, meaning they were travelling in the same direction. The approach radar controller gave a diverging direction to avoid a collision in mid-air,” one of the officials made a remark.
