ATC Staff De-Rostered After 2 Planes Come Alarmingly Close At Mumbai Airport Runway

Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) de-rostered an air traffic controller (ATC) personnel after two planes came alarmingly close to each other on the same runway at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here.

A video of the averted mishap went viral on social media, showing an inbound flight landing at almost the same time as another aircraft was about to take off.

Watch the video here:

On Saturday, an Air India flight was taking off while an IndiGo flight prepared to descend and touch down.

Fortunately, as the IndiGo flight 6E 6053 was close to landing at runway 27, Air India flight AI 657 was airborne in the nick of time.

“The incident is being probed. The tower (air traffic) controller has been off-rostered pending investigation,” a Civil Aviation ministry official said.

An IndiGo spokesperson said: “On June 8, 2024, IndiGo flight 6E 6053 from Indore was given landing clearance by ATC at Mumbai Airport. The Pilot in Command continued the approach and landing and followed ATC instructions. At IndiGo, passenger safety is paramount to us, and we have reported the incident as per procedure.”

“AI657 from Mumbai to Trivandrum was on take-off roll on June 8. The Air India aircraft was cleared by Air Traffic Control to enter the runway and subsequently cleared for take-off. The Air India aircraft continued with the take-off movement in accordance with laid down procedures. An investigation has been initiated by the authorities to find out more on the clearance given to the airlines,” the spokesperson added.

The incident sent shockwaves through the fraternity.

“What they (the ATC) do is they squeeze in a departure when an aircraft is relatively close on final approach. They need the departing aircraft to start moving as soon as possible and the landing aircraft to be at its minimum approach speed to keep the separation. It appears that one or both of these may not have happened in this case,” Hindustan Times quoted a former pilot as saying.

ATC Guild general secretary Alok Yadav said ATC staff working in busy airports like Mumbai are under a lot of pressure.

“The separation minima between two aircraft can be reduced if the visibility is good. In this particular case, the visibility was good and there was no air prox situation with respect to the landing IndiGo flight and the taking off Air India flight. There might have been a delay in quite fair visibility, the tower controller is allowed to reduce separation minima between two aircraft if reasonable assurance has been established by visualising both aircraft. In the video it can be seen that departure has crossed V2 (safety take-off speed) and nosed up and on the other end of runway IndiGo is touching down,” he explained.

“ATCs are under significant pressure when there is high density traffic at airports with the safety of aircraft and passengers. The DGCA probe will be looking at whether all norms were followed by the ATC as well as the pilots concerned,” he added.