India
It was 5:10 PM when the plane from Guwahati to Kolkata and that from Chennai to Guwahati came so close to each other that they were just 48 seconds apart from a head-on collision
New Delhi: Ever thought of a situation where, as you flip the pages of a magazine sitting inside an aircraft midair, the aircraft you are in collides with another? On Thursday, two IndiGo flights came face to face while in Bangladesh airspace.
Both the aircraft are of IndiGo. One was flying from Guwahati to Kolkata while the other was a flight from Chennai to Guwahati.
It was 5:10 PM where this near-collision situation arose. MyNation has learnt that both the planes came so close to each other that they were just 48 seconds apart from a head-on collision.
Thankfully, the Kolkata air traffic control (ATC) noticed it and quickly alerted its counterpart in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh ATC got in touch with the pilots and their routes were changed just at the nick of time.
Sources in Kolkata ATC say the situation could be a result of negligence on part of Dhaka ATC.
An investigation has been ordered to find out whether the pilots were oblivious to the situation due to a possible failure of the in-flight alert system or it was a plain dereliction of duty on the part of the ATC or both.
Indigo, on its part, has downplayed the incident. In a statement, they said, "We have cross-checked the flight data of the aircraft involved (6E-856 and 6E-571), both aircraft had sufficient horizontal and vertical separation within the regulatory requirements. Hence, the automated proximity warning was not even triggered."
With inputs from Bidhan Naskar
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