Two international flights had a close shave over Mumbai skies in March: Report
Published: 28 September 2024
The breach of standard separation between the two aircraft took place on March 24 at 7:36 a.m.
NT Bureau
Doha
In an alarming development, two Boeing 777 aircraft, one belonging to El Al and another to Qatar Air-ways, came within a minute of collision at 35,000 feet over the Arabian Sea on March 24 in an area managed by Mumbai’s air traffic controllers, Indian newspaper The Hindu reported.
On this route, planes are expected to stay at least 10 minutes apart.
“The incident came to light after a preliminary probe report was recently published by the Aircraft Ac-cident Investigation Bureau, a division of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation. It said that no cockpit alerts had been generated to warn the pilots of the two planes. According to sources, at least two of the air traffic controllers on duty during the incident have been suspended and sent for corrective training,” the report says.
According to the AAIB’s preliminary report, the breach of standard separation between the two air-craft took place on March 24 at 7:36 a.m. (Indian Standard Time). El Al’s flight ELY-81 was flying from Tel Aviv to Bangkok and the Qatar Airways flight QTR-8E was bound for Male from Doha.
Both the aircraft were on their designated flight route and flying at the same level, that is, at 35,000 feet. The breach of separation took place between the two aircraft at waypoint ‘GOLEM’, which is over Arabian Sea, and falls in the Mumbai flight information region.
The standard lateral distance on this oceanic route is 10 minutes. However, these two aircraft were dangerously close, with the minimum separation between them narrowing to just 9.1 nautical miles, which means that the two planes were just one minute apart, according to the report.
It said that there was no cockpit alert generated to warn pilots of a collision threat by the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), and neither was there any air traffic control (ATC) alert. The investigation is yet to ascertain whether this was because the two aircraft were not close enough to produce the TCAS alert, or if there was any other reason.
“The final report will also be published in due course,” AAIB chief G.V.G. Yugandhar told The Hindu in response to queries about what may have led to the safety breach.
