Gadget glitch in sky scare

Calcutta: A technical snag on Tuesday afternoon crippled a vital communication gadget at Calcutta airport, endangering the skies between Calcutta and Chennai for a while.
A high-frequency communication system of the Calcutta air traffic control (ATC) area south — controlling the skies over Bay of Bengal, till Myanmar — went on the blink, causing a breakdown in communication between control staff at the airport and the aircraft.
As a result, a Kingfisher flight from Visakhapatnam to Chennai, climbed to a height of 18,000 feet instead of 14,000 feet. The error was rectified only after the aircraft contacted Chennai ATC after cruising at the “wrong altitude” for around 20 minutes.
“If any other aircraft had been flying at that altitude during those 20 minutes, there could have been a mid-air crisis,” admitted the official.
Till 5,000 feet, an aircraft is controlled by the Visakhapatnam ATC, beyond which the Calcutta ATC takes over. But following the communication breakdown on Tuesday, the city airport was forced to keep in touch with the flight crew through the Visakhapatnam ATC or other aircraft flying the route. Officials in the radar control room of Calcutta airport watched in horror as the craft climbed to 18,000 feet and stayed there. Finally, the Chennai ATC saved the day by instructing the aircraft to climb down to 14,000 feet.
06/02/08 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, Kingfisher Feb 2008, Safety Feb 2008