Alert Vistara pilot averts collision of two aircraft, saving over 300 lives at Delhi Airport
Vistara pilot prevented a possible collision between two aircraft and saved over 300 lives at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday. As per a TOI report, the incident occurred when a Vistara UK926 flight from Ahmedabad had just touched down on runway 29L and another Vistara UK726 aircraft was about to take off from runway 29R with both flights having a combined total of 322 passengers on board.
Captain Sonu Gill, in command of the landing aircraft, had been directed by air traffic control (ATC) to taxi to Terminal 3 by crossing the parallel active runway 29R after landing.
However, a momentary lapse by an air traffic controller led to the takeoff clearance being given to the departing UK726 flight from the same runway.
Noticing the imminent danger, Captain Gill reacted promptly by halting the taxiing aircraft at the holding point of runway 29R and alerting the ATC about the erroneous clearances. The two aircraft were within a mere 2-kilometer distance at this critical juncture.
ATC immediately instructed the pilots of the departing flight to abort the takeoff, resulting in averted disaster.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated an investigation into the incident and has removed the involved air traffic controller from duty. A senior DGCA official stated, «Momentarily, the tower controller forgot this crossing and issued the takeoff clearance to another Vistara flight… On realization of this error based on input from [the first] flight, [the] tower controller instructed [the second] flight to cancel takeoff.»
The incident has highlighted the pressing issue of handing operation of parallel runways.
