09 June,2024 06:43 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Screengrab of the video
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is looking into an incident at Mumbai airport in which an IndiGo plane landed and an Air India plane took off from the same runway in less than a minute. This event occurred on Saturday, and it resulted in the temporary removal of the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) on duty at the time.
A video of the incident, which shows one plane landing while another takes off, has emerged on social media. The DGCA has launched an investigation and has already relieved the ATCO implicated of duty. IndiGo has also initiated its investigation, reported PTI.
As per the PTI report, Mumbai Airport has a single runway with two crossing runways and handles about 850 planes per day. On the busy RW27 runway, there are approximately 46 arrivals and departures per hour.
IndiGo verified that its flight from Indore received landing permission from ATC and followed the instructions correctly. "Passenger safety is paramount to us, and we have reported the incident as per procedure," said IndiGo.
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According to an Airports Authority of India (AAI) source, departing aircraft must clear the runway or turn it off before incoming aircraft receive landing clearance. However, it appears that this practice was not followed in this situation, the report added.
The Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) Guild reported that there was no immediate risk of collision, described as "air prox," and that ATCs were under significant pressure due to the airport's high volume of traffic. According to the Guild, controllers can reduce the spacing between planes if visibility is good and both planes are in sight.
The Adani Group-AAI promoted Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport had previously declared that it would handle 8% higher air traffic movements during the summer schedule, which begins on March 29, stated the PTI report.
According to the ATC Guild, "The tower controller is allowed to reduce separation minima between two aircraft if reasonable assurance has been established by visualising both aircraft." It further emphasised that if there had been a genuine safety danger, the pilot would have performed a go-around manoeuvre.
Under certain conditions and with good sight, ATCs can manage up to two arrivals and two departures per three minutes. The DGCA review will establish whether all protocols were followed correctly by both the ATC and the pilots.
