“I was asked to descend to 10,000 from 35,000 feet. But the ATC had cleared another flight for an ascent of 31,000 feet,” he recalls.
Poor facilities and shortage of manpower are to be blamed for the mayhem over Mumbai skies
When a thorough professional with 40 years of flying different aircraft under his belt says it requires a lot of luck, prayers and a good horoscope to fly over congested Mumbai skies, it should be taken seriously. Captain Ranganathan knows near misses closely, having been directly involved in two.
“I was asked to descend to 10,000 from 35,000 feet. But the ATC had cleared another flight for an ascent of 31,000 feet,” he recalls.
“Fortunately the Traffic Control Avoidance System (TCAS) started beeping ‘avoidance manoeuvre’ and I pulled my aircraft to safety.”
His second near miss took place over Indonesia.
“I just had been cleared for a take-off and was passing through an altitude of 5000 feet when another aircraft, cleared for a descent was headed for the runway, from an altitude of 4800 feet. So the two aircraft were headed towards each other, just 200 feet apart!” he says. “But if you do follow procedures, you can manoeuvre your aircraft from a mishap.”
The increase in the air traffic has resulted in extra pressure on infrastructure and the ATCs. “There is a shortage of manpower in the ATC where one person has to handle many operations,” says Lt Col VK Nagar, chief operating officer, Ahmedabad Aviation and Aeronautics Academy. Ranganathan says airlines and authorities are equally to be blamed for allowing expansion without any plan for a synchronous growth of airport infrastructure.
“There are no pilots available. Our procedures are outdated and infrastructure is pathetic,” he adds.
An ABC Consultants report says there is a requirement of 500 pilots per year whereas the availability is just about 200, while the ATC would need at least 1000 new personnel between 2005 and 2015.
“We are taking far too many short-cuts. At the speed and altitude that we fly nowadays (560 miles per hour at 30-40,000 feet) under conditions of severe air congestion, it is not just enough for a pilot to earn an CPL (commercial pilot licence),” says a senior pilot with an international airline.
Another senior pilot feels the disparity between aircraft and infrastructure is a ticking timebomb. “Of the 500 aircraft ordered at the Paris Air Show, almost 250 were acquired by Indian carriers,” he says.
“Mumbai can accommodate only one or two more aircraft per hour during peak
traffic time.”
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