Near miss: How AI’s woman pilot saved lives of 261 flyers

Air traffic controllers handling the Vistara and Air India flights that came dangerously close in Mumbai airspace last Wednesday (Febraury 7) have been suspended. Investigators are probing if in those tense seconds — when the two planes with 261 passengers on them — had to be pulled apart, there was some confusion in the controller’s coordination with the two cockpits which were both manned by women at that time.

AI’s Airbus A-319 was enroute from Mumbai to Bhopal as AI 631 and Vistara’s A-320 Neo was flying from Delhi to Pune as UK 997. “The planes were barely seconds away from each other. Vistara was descending from its assigned level of 29,000 feet to 27,100 feet where an AI flight was coming in the opposite direction. There may have been confusion between the ATC and Vistara cockpit — which at that time had a woman co-pilot at the controls and the captain had taken a toilet break. The AI flight had a woman commander, Captain Anupama Kohli. Maybe there was a mix-up in communication in those tense seconds like what altitude instruction is being given to which lady. This has to be seen,” said sources.