In times when horrific aviation disasters have shocked the world, a potentially ghastly incident could have occurred off the Indian coast on Saturday when, due to a communication failure, the Indian Navy test fired several lethal surface-to-surface missiles above the Arabian Sea even as the airspace remained open to air traffic.
According to a report in the Mumbai Mirror, the Navy had requested Air Traffic Control (ATC) to shut down the airspace between 1230 and 1530 hours (12.30 pm to 3.30 pm), but forgot to specify the timezone — IST or GMT — in its request. With a lack of clarification, ATC assumed it to be GMT and shut down the airspace three hours after the missile exercise had started.
In those three hours of long range missile exercises, many commercial airliners passed through the airspace, but both the Navy and the ATC have been hush-hush over the exact number of airliners that escaped disaster or whether there were any near-misses, the report says.
Instead the Navy sought to downplay the gravity of the situation.
03/11/15 First Post
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According to a report in the Mumbai Mirror, the Navy had requested Air Traffic Control (ATC) to shut down the airspace between 1230 and 1530 hours (12.30 pm to 3.30 pm), but forgot to specify the timezone — IST or GMT — in its request. With a lack of clarification, ATC assumed it to be GMT and shut down the airspace three hours after the missile exercise had started.
In those three hours of long range missile exercises, many commercial airliners passed through the airspace, but both the Navy and the ATC have been hush-hush over the exact number of airliners that escaped disaster or whether there were any near-misses, the report says.
Instead the Navy sought to downplay the gravity of the situation.
03/11/15 First Post
