The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is currently probing a potential mid-air collision that could have occurred on November 17, 2023, involving two IndiGo Airlines aircraft. Departing from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the planes were en route to Hyderabad and Raipur, respectively.
“At the time of the closest vertical separation (400 feet), lateral separation was 1.2 nautical miles between the two planes. At the time of the closest lateral separation of 0.2 nautical miles, the vertical separation was 800 feet between both the aircrafts. There was no injury to any of the occupants onboard in both the aircrafts. There was no damage”, revealed a preliminary report released by the AAIB.
The incident involved Indigo A321 aircraft VT-IUO, scheduled for flight 6E 2113 to Hyderabad, and Indigo A320 aircraft VT-ISO, scheduled for flight 6E 2206 to Raipur on November 17, 2023. Departing from Runway 27 at 6:30 a.m. UTC, 6E 2113, following SID AKRIB 6A, took off at 7:01 a.m. UTC. However, it deviated left towards the takeoff path of Runway 29R instead of following the assigned SID AKRIB 6A at 07:01:40. Simultaneously, 6E 2206 received clearance and departed from Runway 29R following SID ITBAN 6C, climbing to 4000 feet. Contacting APAD, the controller instructed 6E 2206 to climb to 4000 feet. During this sequence, a breach of separation occurred, triggering a current conflict alert, the report added.
Both aircraft were operated by Interglobe Aviation Limited, and both held valid Aircraft Release Certificates (ARC). The report emphasised that no major snags or repairs were conducted after their last significant maintenance checks. Data from Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight data recorder were downloaded and obtained for further analysis.
