Air India Planes Avoid Runway Collision at Mumbai Airport

A major safety breach was averted at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) after two Air India aircraft were cleared to use the same runway simultaneously. India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched a formal investigation into the incident and de-rostered the Air Traffic Control (ATC) official involved. Simultaneous Runway Operations The conflict involved Air India flight AI657, bound for Thiruvananthapuram, and flight AI442, arriving from Ahmedabad. According to flight tracking data and airport reports, the departing aircraft was in its takeoff roll on Runway 27 while the arriving flight was permitted to land on the same strip. Visual evidence from the site showed the landing aircraft touching down just as the departing narrow-body jet lifted off. Standard aviation safety protocols require a specific separation distance between aircraft using the same runway. In this instance, the arriving flight landed before the departing flight had cleared the runway environment, a violation of established safety margins. Air traffic controllers are responsible for ensuring that a departing aircraft has crossed the runway end or commenced a…