2 near-misses every month in Indian skies

Mumbai: What is the possibility of a mid-air collision over Indian skies? Though this has happened only twice in the last 20 years, the disturbing figure is that there have been an average of two near-miss incidents every month over the past two years.
What stops them from being a collision is the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) installed on passenger aircraft, that warn pilots of other planes in its immediate vicinity. According to DGCA sources, there were 21 near-miss incidents in 2005, which went up to 26 in 2006.
On March 8, an Indian Airlines and a Korean Air aircraft would have collided over Nagpur, if not for the last-minute warning from TCAS.
Most of the near-miss incidents involve those between domestic and international airlines followed by those between commercial airlines and IAF aircraft. Records show that IAF aircraft were involved in seven near-miss incidents with civilian aircraft last year.
Safety experts have warned of the tendency to relegate near-miss incidents to record books without taking the necessary corrective action.
01/03/07 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Safety Apr 2007