The Hindu : National : Major air mishap averted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

National

National

Major air mishap averted

By T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI, SEPT.19. A major mid-air collision involving three jetliners was averted over the Pune airspace on September 15.

The near collision was averted, thanks to the latest avionics and sharp reflexes of the pilots and a Mumbai Air Traffic Controller.

Highly-placed Civil Aviation Ministry sources told The Hindu here today that at the time of the incident three wide-bodied jetliners were under the control of the Pune Air Force ATC, which provides ATC services for all flights in the Pune airport restricted airspace, whenever the local flying of the Air Force is on.

An Air India Airbus-310 flight AI (C815) had left Mumbai for Hyderabad and was cleared to climb to 29,000 ft by Mumbai ATC. It was changed over to the Pune ATC frequency before it entered Pune airspace. There were two flights in the opposite direction — a Qatar Airways Airbus-320 flight (251), flying from Hyderabad to Doha at 32,000 ft, and an Indian Airlines Airbus-320 flight (IC-927) from Hyderabad to Mumbai at 30,000 ft.

Accordingly, the Pune ATC was informed about all the three flights by the Mumbai ATC, well in advance. All the three jets were given traffic information about each other by Mumbai and then changed over to the Pune ATC for proper control and separation.

After some time, when the flights were almost overflying Pune, the Route Radar Controller of the Mumbai ATC, observed on his radar scope that Air India (AIC815) flight was climbing above the cleared altitude of 29000 ft. He desperately tried to contact these aircraft on his frequency, but in vain.

At the same time, the Pune ATC was alerted about this situation on telephone. The airborne avionics of all three aircraft, the TCAS equipment (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) worked well and averted the collision.

The TCAS equipment, that works on Mode-S band Data link, alerted Air India flight to descend and the Qatar flight to climb.

Later, the Air India flight told the Mumbai ATC that the Pune ATC had cleared him to climb to 33,000 ft.

Not first time

It is not the first time that a near air-miss of this nature has taken place over the Pune airspace.

According to Air Traffic Control sources, last time such an incident happened was on December 4, 2003 between two Jet Airways aircraft (JAI454 and JAI457) which were allowed to come too close to each other by Pune ATC. In this incident also, the aircraft were saved by the TCAS equipment.

It is also revealed that Mumbai ATCOs do not have direct contact with Pune ATCOs, as they should; instead, the direct telephone line that is used for relaying of ATC messages is attended at Pune end by a low rank non-ATC Air Force staff. This leads to a delay in the dissemination of important ATC messages.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National

News Update

Stories in this Section