IAF-Aviation ministry row escalates over Mumbai air miss

Bangalore/Mumbai: The row over who is responsible for the near-miss involving a Presidential chopper and a civilian plane in Mumbai escalated today with IAF chief Fali H Major saying his pilots were not to be blamed while the Civil Aviation ministry asserted it would be "premature" to conclude anything without a probe finding.
"It would be premature to comment until the probe is completed on both the sides," Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel said in Mumbai hours after Air Chief Marshal Major strongly defended his pilots saying they had landing clearance.
Patel said the fact is that there have been "some communication gaps and the government was awaiting a DGCA probe." "Now who is responsible, only the probe will let us know."
Patel told PTI he did not know on what basis the Air Chief came to the conclusion about his pilots not being responsible. "Maybe he has better information from his side," he said. Reacting to media reports that the pilot of the IAF helicopter landed without clearance, the Air chief told reporters in Bangalore that the helicopters were asked to land "in sequence 2, 1 and 3.
"One carrying the President, 2 was security. The three aircraft were specifically cleared by Bombay ATC on runway 27. So when they were cleared, they came and landed."
Major said the three helicopters were flown by some of the most experienced pilots in the Air Force who were drafted to ferry the President. One of the three helicopters forming part of the Presidential entourage landed on the runway at the Mumbai international airport close to an Air India aircraft with 150 passengers forcing its pilot to abort take off at the last minute on Monday averting a possible disaster.
"They were not aware of the Air India aircraft because it was on the tower frequency. So, there was no contact between the two aircraft," Major said.
Civil Aviation sources have claimed that the IAF helicopters were not in touch with Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Mumbai airport. "Probably there is a need to fine tune the procedure from the side of DGCA or the civil aviation because my pilots will stick to the frequency they were asked to stick to. That's it," the IAF chief said.
Patel however disagreed with this assessment. "I don't agree with that statement."
"The fact is yes there needs to be better coordination between the Air Force and civilian side. Infact regarding the Jorhat incident yesterday(near air miss) the ATC is not civilian ATC, it is the Air Force ATC," he added.
11/02/09 PTI/The Hindu

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Categories: Air India Domestic Feb 2009, Airports Feb 2009, NACIL Feb 2009, Safety Feb 2009