65 ‘airprox’ in last 3 yrs: Govt
Sridhar Kumaraswami
New Delhi, Dec. 12
Human error by air traffic controllers, handling of ATC functions by trainee controllers amid faulty supervision by their instructors, heavy air traffic leading to stress and fatigue, as well as radar failure have been listed as some of the reasons for 65 “airprox” incidents from 2010 wherein the minimum air-safety distance between two aircraft was breached resulting in air proximity, the government — in a shocking admission — informed Parliament on Wednesday. This has raised serious questions on air-safety in India.
According to statistics submitted in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, the civil aviation ministry stated that 14 incidents of airprox had taken place in 2012 so far. Of the 14 incidents, there was one incident of airprox between aircraft of a Pakistan-based airline and that of domestic carrier SpiceJet which took place in the Delhi flight information region (FIR). There was another airprox incident between aircraft of a foreign carrier and domestic carrier Go Air, again in the Delhi FIR. Yet another airprox this year took place in western India between aircraft of Royal Jordanian Airlines and Srilankan Airlines.
There were also three incidents of airprox in 2012 between Indian Air Force aircraft and civilian aircraft. “Some airprox occurred when traffic was handled by a trainee controller during his on-job training albeit under the supervision of an instructor. The instructor was late in taking over or did not correct the conflicting situation in time,” the government admitted.
“In some cases, it has been found that due to read/hear back error, pilot climbed/descended (to the) wrong level as assigned by the ATC,” was one more reason furnished by the government.
While “human error by air traffic control” was listed as one of the reasons, other reasons included “heavy traffic leading to stress and fatigue”. The government also said, “Some airprox occurred in the event of radar failure when radar control is replaced by procedural control”. Also, “similar/call sign of the aircraft” was listed as another reason.