Two IndiGo planes flying to and from Guwahati had a close shave on Tuesday.
The incident took place over the Dhaka airspace near Guwahati and involved flight 6E-813 (Mumbai-Guwahati) carrying 112 passengers and one infant and 6E-136 (Guwahati-Chennai) with 91 passengers and one infant on board. The airline said the passengers and the cabin crew were shaken, but suffered no major injury.
Bad weatherThe Mumbai-Guwahati flight had to climb about 300 feet due to bad weather, just when another IndiGo flight crossed its path. In a statement, IndiGo said that the Guwahati-Mumbai plane experienced turbulence due to monsoon activity over the sub-continent. It said two activities take place during bad weather — Cumulo Nimbus and Clear Air Turbulence. “While the former can be detected by the weather radar, as per which the flight crew typically takes deviations and fly to avoid any turbulence — the latter, experienced occasionally, cannot be detected by the weather radar,” IndiGo said.
“(The) 6E-813 flight experienced ‘Clear Air Turbulence’ (CAT) which could not be detected by the weather radar,” the airline said. Following this, the pilot followed the instructions of the on-board Traffic Collision Avoidance System to maintain adequate distance between the aircraft, it said.
First aid givenThe aircraft made a normal landing. Four passengers complained of giddiness and two cabin crew required first aid which was provided at the airport.
