Two air traffic controllers suspended

New delhi: Two air traffic controllers (ATCs) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, who were handling aircraft that came “dangerously close” over the Delhi airspace earlier this month, have been suspended till further investigations.
In a statement on Thursday, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the ATCs were de-rostered as per standard procedure when necessary investigations were being carried out in the April 5 incident involving Air India and Kingfisher Airlines planes.
The national carrier, however, denied involvement of their aircraft in the incident.
The AAI, however, maintained there was “no serious collision risk” when the vertical separation between the Air India flight IC-941 from Hyderabad to Delhi and Kingfisher Airlines’ Delhi to Bhubaneshwar flight IT-3345 came down to 700 feet as against the required 1,000 feet. The two planes were on “different flight paths” — one was approaching for landing and the other for take off. A conflict alert was generated at the ATC display when the Kingfisher aircraft was climbing to 17,500 feet and the Air India aircraft was descending to 18,600 feet on April 5 when they were about 35 nautical miles south of Delhi.
16/04/10 Indian Express

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Categories: Air India Domestic Apr 2010, Airports Apr 2010, Kingfisher Apr 2010, NACIL Apr 2010, Safety Apr 2010