Probe: President choppers did not have ATC clearance

New Delhi: The inquiry committee that probed the February 9 “near miss” involving a helicopter which was part of President Pratibha Patil’s air entourage and an Air India Airbus-321 has reported that the VVIP formation of three IAF helicopters landed in the Mumbai airport without taking clearance from the Air Traffic Control (ATC).
The report of the Joint Investigation Team — of senior officials from the IAF, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) — has been accepted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Five “attributable” factors have been listed by the Committee after examining ATC and cockpit transcripts and going through oral and documentary submissions:
• Pratap 2 (the IAF helicopter that was involved in the near-miss and was seconds away from colliding with the Airbus) landed without taking clearance from ATC even before the Pratap formation reported the finals (approach to runway).
• Pratap 2 landed directly on Runway 27 by making a very short circuit. (The inquiry team correlated or simulated the flight paths and timings and concluded: “It is evident Pratap 2 had broken off from the formation and landed directly at a landing place between ‘W’ and ‘R’ and did not follow any traffic circuit)”
• Pratap 1 and Pratap 3 also landed without landing clearance from the Mumbai ATC.
There was a late transfer of control of the aircraft from the approach to the ATC tower. IAF officials pointed out that if this had been done, the helicopter formation would have known the position of IC-866 and the near-disaster would have been averted.
There was “unsatisfactory coordination” among various agencies (including the IAF, the AAI and the Home Ministry) for handling the VVIP flight and several Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were not followed, the report says.
01/07/09 Indian Express

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