A mid-air mishap was averted on Thursday after an automatically generated warning alerted the pilots of two Air India planes that came dangerously close to each other allegedly due to a mistake from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC).
The incident apparently occurred due to the mixing up of call signs, assigned to the two flights — AI 142 (Paris-Delhi) and AI 154 (Vienna-Delhi) — by the ATC, sources said, adding that the aircraft were just 700 feet apart, when the vertical separation should be 1,000 feet.
The controller has been taken off duty and the aviation authorities have initiated a probe to ascertain the exact cause of the incident.
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Pilots are supposed to ensure a vertical separation of 1,000 feet between the two aircraft at a flight level of 29,000 feet.