Bangladesh air****ts lack modern tracking equipment. Their accent
is unintelligible. Only the commonsense of the Jet Airways averted
a major midair disaster. Dacca air-controllers gave faulty orders to
one of the planes.
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ClLOSE SHAVE FOR KOLKATA BOUND PLANE
20 Jun 2008, 0334 hrs IST, Arpit Basu,TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Close_shave_for_Kolkata-bound_pla=
ne/articleshow/3147096.cms
KOLKATA: "Traffic, Traffic!" This computerized alarm over the Dhaka
skies on Wednesday afternoon prevented a repeat of the horrific
Charkhi-Dadri midair collision of 1996 that killed 349 people.
When the passenger jets =97 one of them a Jet Airways flight to Kolkata
=97 veered away from each other on the Dhaka skies on Wednesday, they
were merely 1,600 feet (490 metres) apart. Less than two seconds from
collision. It was TCAS (traffic alert and collision avoidance system),
mandatory on all Indian planes since the Charkhi-Dadri disaster, that
saved hundreds of lives.
The Jet Airways 9W-247 flight was climbing and exactly midway between
Dhaka and Kolkata after taking off from Zia International Air****t at 4
pm. When it reached a height of 14,000 feet at 4.15 pm, the TCAS
sounded the alert to captain Rajiv Pandey, who immediately levelled
off.
The other plane, an international flight, was at 15,600 feet when its
captain got a similar warning from its TCAS. It was at 17,000 feet
when Dhaka ATC asked it to descend to 13,000 feet. After the collision
alert, the pilot stopped descending and maintained his altitude.
Pandey, who was about to descend to avoid a crash, realized the other
aircraft had levelled off and was flying at 15,600 feet. Both planes
flew their way.
The near miss was revealed when Pandey filled up the resolution
advisory (RA) form on landing at NSCBI Air****t. The Directorate-
General of Civil Aviation will soon start an investigation into the
incident.
An ATC source in Kolkata air****t said lack of radar coverage in Dhaka
often creates problems. "Traffic controllers have to rely on manual
calculation to maintain separation distance between two aircraft.
Chances of human error are high. TCAS saved the day," he said.
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