Clear and present danger in the air

An Air-India flight, AI-962, carrying at least 250 passengers, had a miraculous escape on May 2 when it narrowly missed a mid-air collision with a military aircraft while flying from Jeddah in the Gulf to Kozhikode in Kerala.

“I received a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) warning on my screen,” a terrified Air India pilot reported to the Mumbai Air Traffic Control then.

“The military aircraft was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet, just 500 feet below the Air-India flight,” the pilot reportedly told ATC. As a result, the pilot had to make a sudden climb up of 1,500 feet.

“A TCAS resolution alert warns only when there is a high probability for collision,” airport  sources said.  “This is a serious safety hazard,” said a senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officer in Mumbai.

According to safety norms, the vertical separation between two aircraft should be 1,000 feet and 1,600 meters for horizontal separation.

ATC sources said such incidents had been happening for the past two decades with an average of six a year. “But there is a sudden rise in the number of such incidents. We have witnessed three near-misses in the last 10 days,” an ATC official said.

“We are worried. It is our responsibility to guide and control any aircraft that enter our Flight Information Route (FIR),” ATC sources said. According to rules, every aircraft in the controlled airspace should inform the ATC about its altitude and route to ensure safety.

Since the incidents take place in the oceanic control region, the military aircraft are out of radar coverage area. However, Civil Aviation officials suspect the military aircraft belong to the United States as the only naval and air base close to the Mumbai FIR is Diego Garcia, a US military base.