DGCA orders probe into Jan 7 near miss involving two Indigo aircraft in Bengaluru

Two IndiGo flights that took off from the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on January 7 had come close to colliding with each other mid-air while taking off, revealed chief of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Arun Kumar.

Kumar said the flights involved in the incident were 6E 455 departing for Kolkata and 6E 246 for Bhubaneswar. Luckily, all the passengers and the crew were safe as the radar controller spotted the error and alerted the pilots in both the flight decks immediately.

Kumar has ordered a probe and said strict action will be taken against those responsible for the error. Another senior officer of DGCA said, “The north runway was being used for departures and the south runway for arrival of flights. But later, the shift in-charge decided to close the south runway but did not inform the air traffic controller of the south tower.”