On the other hand, the Kazakh aeroplane wants to land. Dutta tells the Kazakh aeroplane to remain at the height of 15,000 ft. And not to descend any further, because the Saudi aeroplane was flying at 14,000 ft. There needs to be at least a vertical distance of 1,000 ft between 2 aircraft. On his screen, VK Dutta sees the two aircraft as blinking dots.
Over the next few minutes, he sees how these two blinking dots keep getting close to each other. And just like that, the two dots fused into one. And then disappear altogether. This was the point when Dutta realized that something terrible had happened. Around 100 km from Delhi, lies the small city of Charkhi Dadri.
That evening, the residents of this city saw a bright flash of light in the sky, akin to lighting, and then they hear the thunder. Before they could even think about what was happening, iron debris started falling on them. The two planes crashed into each other. This was the first and only mid-air collision in India and the worst air disaster in India’s history.
