India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has begun an investigation into a near-miss incident at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai, which saw an Indigo plane landing on a runway close behind an Air India plane.
The regulator also revealed that it had taken the air traffic control (ATC) staff involved in the event off of their shifts at BOM.
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A statement from the authority to IndiaTV said: “DGCA has de-rostered the ATC staff involved in the incident at Mumbai Airport where an inbound IndiGo flight landed on Runway 27 while an Air India flight was still in the process of taking off.”
The footage of the two Airbus A320neo aircraft coming dangerously close to each other made the rounds online last week, sparking discussion about how both planes could have been on the runway at the same time.
A statement from IndiGo claimed that its pilot had been given landing clearance by ATC operators and had followed their instructions, adding: “At IndiGo, passenger safety is paramount to us, and we have reported the incident as per procedure.”
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By GlobalData
Similarly, Air India stated that its flight had also been cleared to enter the runway for takeoff and followed ATC instructions.
However, according to reports, the planes came about 2,130ft away from each other on the runway before the Air India plane began ascending, with the Indigo A320neo also only 600ft in the air when the other plane reached the lined-up position on the ground.
The near miss comes less than a year after concerns were sparked in the US after a New York Times investigation found that close-call incidents were happening more frequently than previously thought, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to put further funding into airports to help address the issue.
