AI-Vistara mid-air collision averted by seconds in Mumbai
Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: This was as close as it gets. On February 7, a Vistara flight descended to an altitude where an Air India aircraft was flying — in the opposite direction. The two planes were then speeding towards each other. A mid-air collision was averted by a few seconds, and this near miss is being seen as the closest shave witnessed in Indian skies in years.
The DGCA has grounded two Vistara pilots. However, Vistara sources said air traffic control (ATC) had asked their pilots to be at 27,000 feet and that they did not do so inadvertently.
This incident happened in Mumbai airspace after 8pm on Wednesday when AI’s Airbus A-319 was flying from Mumbai to Bhopal as AI 631 and was at a flight level of 27,000 feet. Vistara’s A-320 Neo was flying from Delhi to Pune as UK 997 with 152 passengers and sources say had been assigned a flight level of 29,000 feet. However, UK 997 came down to 27,100 feet and then the two planes were flying towards each other with a vertical separation of just 100 feet. At that moment, the traffic collision avoidance systems (TCAS) alarms went off in cockpits of both the planes which managed to avoid a mid-air collision.
“AI 631and UK 997 at one point were 100 feet apart vertically and 2.8 km laterally apart. They were just seconds away from each other,” said a source. TMA is a designated area of controlled airspace surrounding a major airport with high volume of traffic.
AVistara spokesperson said: “In this particular incident the resolution advisory (RA) got triggered due to conflicting traffic. Our pilot followed the SOP (standard operating procedure) to avoid it and carried out an uneventful landing.”
For the full report, log on to www.timesofindia.com
Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: This was as close as it gets. On February 7, a Vistara flight descended to an altitude where an Air India aircraft was flying — in the opposite direction. The two planes were then speeding towards each other. A mid-air collision was averted by a few seconds, and this near miss is being seen as the closest shave witnessed in Indian skies in years.
The DGCA has grounded two Vistara pilots. However, Vistara sources said air traffic control (ATC) had asked their pilots to be at 27,000 feet and that they did not do so inadvertently.
This incident happened in Mumbai airspace after 8pm on Wednesday when AI’s Airbus A-319 was flying from Mumbai to Bhopal as AI 631 and was at a flight level of 27,000 feet. Vistara’s A-320 Neo was flying from Delhi to Pune as UK 997 with 152 passengers and sources say had been assigned a flight level of 29,000 feet. However, UK 997 came down to 27,100 feet and then the two planes were flying towards each other with a vertical separation of just 100 feet. At that moment, the traffic collision avoidance systems (TCAS) alarms went off in cockpits of both the planes which managed to avoid a mid-air collision.
“AI 631and UK 997 at one point were 100 feet apart vertically and 2.8 km laterally apart. They were just seconds away from each other,” said a source. TMA is a designated area of controlled airspace surrounding a major airport with high volume of traffic.
AVistara spokesperson said: “In this particular incident the resolution advisory (RA) got triggered due to conflicting traffic. Our pilot followed the SOP (standard operating procedure) to avoid it and carried out an uneventful landing.”
For the full report, log on to www.timesofindia.com
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