Another near miss in the skies above Delhi

NEW DELHI: There was another near miss in the skies over Delhi on Saturday morning, according to airline sources.

This follows the much-publicised ‘air-miss’ between a plane carrying Sonia Gandhi and a Virgin Atlantic flight last month.

There has been at least one near miss in the air every month over the past few months in Delhi, according to official statistics.
This time, the disaster could have involved an Air India aircraft with another international carrier, reliable sources told DNA, though there was no immediate official confirmation.

The Delhi skies have been getting more and more dangerous for airlines as the probability of a near miss has gone up due to increased traffic, old operational procedures and the stress on the air traffic staff, who are thinly stretched.

A near miss is reported by an airline pilot if he gets a warning on the aircraft’s Traffic Collision Advisory System through a sound resolution.

This happens when the separation between two aircraft goes below 10 nautical miles. But the air traffic controllers at the Delhi airport told DNA that every time this separation limit is breached, it should not cause a big fuss.

“If the separation goes down to eight or nine miles, it does not mean there would be a collision,” an ATC official said.

Both the Director General of Civil Aviation, Kanu Gohain, and Air India told DNA they had no information on Saturday’s near miss.