ATC suspended for approving flights that came too close in air
New Delhi, May 30
The civil aviation regulator DGCA today decided to suspend an air traffic controller (ATC) for three months for approving simultaneous departures of IndiGo flights at the Bengaluru airport on January 7 that led the two aircrafts coming too close just after their take off.
The two IndiGo flights — 6E455 (Bengaluru to Kolkata) and 6E246 (Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar) — averted a mid-air collision over the Bengaluru airspace just after their simultaneous take off from north runway and south runway, respectively, on January 7.
The incident was called “breach of separation”, which happens when two aircraft cross the minimum mandatory vertical or horizontal distance in the airspace.
In a statement, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, “South tower controller gave departure to 6E 455 in coordination with approach radar controller and at the same time North tower controller gave departure to 6E 246 without prior coordination with south tower controller and approach radar controller.”
As both aircraft after departure were converging to each other, the approach radar controller gave a diverging heading to separate these aircraft, it said.
“At the closet point of conflict, the vertical and lateral separation between both aircraft was 100 ft (Standard 1000 ft) and 0.9 NM (Standard 3NM),” it noted, adding that the entire matter was classified as “serious incident”.
