NEW DELHI – A deadly mid air collision of three passengers aircrafts ofdifferent airlines was narrowly averted in Indian Airspace, PTI hasreported.
Three planes of three foreign airlines, carrying hundreds of passengers,came perilously close in the Delhi flight information region and collisionswere averted after multiple auto generated warnings and intervention fromATC, an official said Friday.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has started a probe intothe incident, which happened on December 23.
Flights of Dutch carrier KLM, Taiwan’s Eva Air and the US-based NationalAirlines were involved in the incident, the official said.
The incident happened in the Delhi Flight Information Region (FIR).
An FIR refers to a specified airspace where flight information and alertingservices are provided. Generally, an FIR can be land and sea territory aswell as any international airspace as defined under global norms.
According to the official, at the time of the incident, National Airlines’flight NCR 840 was on its way to Hong Kong from Bagram in Afghanistan whilethe KLM Flight KLM 875 was heading to Bangkok from Amsterdam.
The Eva Air flight EVA 061 was flying to Vienna from Bangkok, the officialsaid.
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“First it was NCR 840, which was flying at flight level 310 (31,000 ft) andEVA 061 at flight level 320 (32,000 ft) which breached mandatoryseparation. The pilots of both the aircraft were alerted by the onboardTCAS warning system,” the official said.
Around the same time, the KLM flight was at 33,000 ft, he added.
Following the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) warning, the pilotof NCR 840 sought to climb to 35,000 feet but was told to remain at thatcurrent level till the time it gets a go-ahead.
“However, when the air traffic controller (ATC) observed it climbing, itwas immediately asked to take a left turn. In the meantime, EVA alsocontinued climbing at flight level 330, a level at which KLM was alreadyflying, and at this time, another TCAS warning went off, alerting thepilots to steer the aircraft to a safer distance,” the official said.
As the NCR 840 again descended to flight level 330, it came across the EVAflight, triggering another TCAS alarm, the official said.
