Drama at IGI: Indigo, Air India flights avert mid-air collision

quick thinking of an air traffic controller averted a possible collision of two aircraft at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Friday morning.

The incident took place around 11am on Friday when an IndiGo flight aborted landing on Runway 27 at the last moment and decided to go around.

An Air India flight, meanwhile, was taking off from Runway 28, near Runway 27, and would have collided with the IndiGo plane that was doing a go around after lifting off.

An air traffic controller, who noticed the imminent danger, immediately reacted to the situation and asked the

Air India plane to hard brake and abort the take-off, triggering panic among authorities and passengers.

According to ATC sources, the IndiGo flight was given clearance for landing but instead it decided to go around.

“Due to this confusion, the Air India flight was asked to abort the take-off as it would have led to a mid-air collision. The Air India pilot had initiated the process of take-off and had to apply the emergency brakes to stop the aircraft. Due to this, the flight had to return for maintenance check as emergency brakes often result in tyre bursts. The flight later again took off at 12:50pm,” said an AI official.

According to the official, AI 156 started to push back at 11.02am but came back to bay at 11.30am following the incident. The flight again pushed back at 12.50 pm and took off for Goa.

An Indigo spokesperson downplayed the incident. “IndiGo flight 6E-398, from Ranchi to Delhi, discontinued an approach to Runway 27 at Delhi at low-level as per standard operating procedure and landed after a few minutes. At no point the safety was compromised and nor have we heard anything adverse from ATC, Delhi,” the spokesperson said .

The aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), confirmed that the IndiGo aircraft was landing on runway 27 and did a go around.

The captain of the IndiGo flight determined that the plane had not lost enough height that would result in an unstabalised landing.

“The Air India aircraft which was taking off from Runway 28 was asked to reject take-off as per normal protocol. No safety issue, no collision issue and no infringement. Therefore, nowhere safety was compromised,” he said.

There were 122 passengers, including three infants, on board the national carrier.