Far from a smooth landing

A speed of one nautical mile (knot) per hour equals 1.852 kilometres per hour or 1.15078 miles per hour. Now convert 128 knots into kilometres and it comes to 237.056 kmph (147.29 mph). Similarly, 90 knots equals 166.68 kmph or 103.57 mph. Now try and imagine the dreadful scenario at 7.55 am on Sunday, May 31, on two runways of Mumbai, arguably the busiest airport in South Asia. An Airbus-310, weighing more than 125 tonnes with 104 passengers aboard, started moving from east to west and rejected take-off after attaining a speed of 166.68 kmph on a spot just short of a red light-like crossing as the pilot in command detected another aircraft belonging to Jet Airways, with a higher speed of 237.056 kmph, about to ram into it from the right while operating in a north-west/ south-east axis. Surely, none of the pilots would have been alive to tell the story as to who was right and who was wrong for the mishap.
As a frequent flier in the Indian sky, one shudders to think as to what would have been the consequences of the collision between an Airbus-310 (weighing 125 tonnes, carrying 104 passengers with 18 tonnes of fuel) and a Boeing 737-800 (weighing 60 tonnes, carrying 28 passengers and with 12 tonnes of fuel). Hence, several questions need to be addressed and answered by the country today.
Why is Mumbai repeatedly in the news for all the wrong and unpleasant reasons? Who is at fault, and why? Is there no way out? Does Mumbai require a new airport far away from the present site? Has the airport become unwieldy and unmanageable, owing to over-congestion? Is the performance of the air-traffic controller up to the mark? Why did the young captain of Air India ‘violate’ the command of the controller? Was he hard of hearing, or was there something wrong with the clarity of words from the control tower? Was it a case of excessive cluttering of radio telephone conversation? One thing, however, is clear. It was an avoidable incident in which either the air-traffic controller or the aircraft commander(s) committed a terrible error of judgment.
One is reminded of the disastrous collision between the Kazakh and Saudi aircraft over the Delhi skyline on Tuesday, November 12, 1996, which had taken place because of the poor knowledge of English of the Kazakh pilot. It led to an unprecedented fatality in the history of Indian aviation.
So far, as the Mumbai airport is concerned, however, it would be important to remember that by 2016-17, it alone is likely to handle 30.3 million passengers. Yet, it continues to be a difficult, defective and dangerous airport owing to the growth of certain inherent limitations over the years. The biggest defect is Mumbai’s two runways. Clearly, no aircraft operation can be conducted in an uninterrupted manner without full concentration and zero tolerance for error. In fact, one of the trickiest of all city airports is Mumbai’s 3,489 metre runway 27-09, spanning an east-west axis. Apart from being encircled by illegal constructions on airport land, jutting deep into the flanks of the runway, every landing and take-off here is potentially hazardous in case of a split-second misjudgment. They can result in the aircraft plunging into a dense jungle of human habitation. Mumbai’s difficulty is further compounded by the descent of the Western Ghats over an area of concrete structures. Moreover, Mumbai’s runway 14-32 requires special take-off procedures to avoid Trombay hill and the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre. This apart, strong monsoon winds, coupled with the Thane creek wind shear along with slum children loitering deep into the forward edge of the air field, pose a threat to aircraft landing in Mumbai. Landing in Mumbai is, thus, one of the most challenging tasks to the flying fraternity, especially during the monsoons. On top of all this exists the growing menace of the canine population, thereby magnifying the existing problem further.
Therefore, the present situation in Mumbai airport does not augur well from the point of view of passenger safety. The onus of conducting safety operations lies fairly and squarely on the men behind the machines. And it is in this aspect that various lacunae are coming to the fore repeatedly.
09/06/09 Abhijit Bhattacharyya/The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009, Safety Jun 2009