At Mumbai Airport, two planes got dangerously close to each other on the runway yesterday. They were just 509 meters apart. One plane, from IndiGo, had come from Indore and was landing. The other, from Air India, was taking off for Thiruvananthapuram.
The aviation authority, DGCA, is looking into what happened. They have stopped the air traffic controller from working while they investigate. According to rules, a plane can only be cleared to land if it won’t cross the runway until the plane taking off has gone past the end of the runway. This rule seems to have been broken here.
The air traffic controllers’ guild said that there was no danger because the weather was clear and both planes were okay. But data from Flightradar and a video on social media show that there was a problem.
Both IndiGo and Air India said their pilots followed the instructions given by the air traffic controllers. IndiGo said that their priority is the safety of passengers and they reported the incident as they should. Air India said their plane followed all the rules during takeoff.
Even though the airlines say everything was fine, this incident shows how much pressure air traffic controllers face, especially in busy airports like Mumbai. Mumbai Airport handles a lot of flights every day, with about 46 planes coming and going every hour on just one runway.
The DGCA is still investigating to make sure everyone followed the rules. The air traffic controllers’ guild also talked about how stressful their job is, especially when there are lots of planes to manage.
Mumbai Airport had plans to handle even more flights during the summer, but incidents like this make people worry about safety.
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