New Delhi: Passengers in two IndiGo aircraft in the North-East had a close shave on account of an air-proxy or near-miss — a breach in minimum prescribed distance that should separate two aircraft in the skies — between the two planes on Tuesday (August 2) apparently after one of the planes faced air-turbulence.
IndiGo has confirmed that four passengers in the plane that faced the turbulence complained of giddiness while two cabin crew had to receive first-aid and that all the passengers and crew in the plane were shaken by the incident. The incident happened in the Dhaka Flight Information Region. The airline said no major injuries were caused.
Late on Wednesday evening, IndiGo admitted that the vertical separation between its two aircraft had come down from the mandated 1,000 ft to 700 ft during the incident. The airline, however, claimed there was no threat of collision.
IndiGo said, “As of now, the investigation is under way and the initial analysis indicates that there was no threat of collision — both the aircraft were laterally and vertically well-separated. They were separated vertically by 1,000 feet as per the regulatory requirement. Due to unexpected turbulence the vertical separation reduced to 700 feet and flight crew immediately began to address the altitude deviation , at the very moment TCAS-RA advisory was generated.
As per the standard operating procedure, the flight crew immediately took corrective action in interest of safety. Sources said the breach appeared to have been caused by a weather condition.
