A major tragedy was averted by few seconds when a Vistara flight almost collided mid-air with an Air India aircraft. The two aircrafts were flying in the opposite direction when Vistara flight descended to an altitude at which Air India was flying.
The incident took place on February 7 in the Mumbai airspace. Two Vistara pilots have been grounded after the incident.
According to the Times of India, Vistara sources said the air traffic control (ATC) had asked the pilots to be at 27,000 feet and they did not do so inadvertently.
At that moment, the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) alarms went off in the cockpits of both planes, and the pilots managed to avoid a midair collision, the newspaper reported.
"At one point, AI 631 and UK 997 were 100 feet apart vertically and 2.8km laterally apart. They were just seconds away from each other. This is the most serious airport (accident) or near-miss in recent times," said a source.
A Vistara spokesperson said: "The safety of our customers and staff is of paramount importance to us and at Vistara we diligently follow all the safety regulations and guidelines. In this particular incident, the resolution advisory (RA) got triggered due to conflicting traffic. Our pilot followed the SOP (standard operating procedure) to avoid it and carried out an uneventful landing. The matter is under investigation by relevant authorities."
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