2 Indigo planes avert mid-air crash, none hurt

Passengers in two IndiGo aircrafts in the Northeast had a close shave on account of an “air-proxy” or “near-miss” — a breach in the minimum prescribed distance that should separate two aircrafts in the skies — between the two planes on Tuesday (August 2). The incident occurred, apparently, after one of the planes faced air turbulence, with IndiGo confirming that four passengers in the plane “complained of giddiness” while two from the cabin crew had to be given first-aid. All those on board were “shaken” by the incident, it said.

According to news agency reports, the incident happened in the Dhaka Flight Information Region (FIR). The airline said “no major injuries” were caused. The moment the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) on the planes went off, the pilots took remedial action as per the Resolution Advisory (RA). IndiGo said the TCAS went off after one of its planes (flight 6E-813 flying in from Mumbai to Guwahati) climbed by 250 to 300 ft due to a weather condition described as Clear Air Turbulence (CAT), which apparently cannot be detected by the weather radar. This climb in altitude caused the breach in minimum prescribed distance with another IndiGo aircraft (flight 6E-136) that was flying from Guwahati to Chennai and crossing from the opposite direction. Senior ATC sources in New Delhi too said the breach appeared to have been caused by a weather condition. Aviation regulator DGCA is likely to probe the incident.

Late on Wednesday, IndiGo admitted that the vertical separation between its two aircrafts had come down from the mandated 1,000 ft to 700 ft. It, however, claimed there was no threat of collision. “As of now, the investigation is underway and the initial analysis indicates that there was no threat of collision — both the aircrafts were laterally and vertically well separated... Due to unexpected turbulence the vertical separation reduced to 700 feet and flight crew immediately began to address the altitude deviation, at the very moment TCAS-RA advisory was generated,” the airline said in a statement.