Why your flights aren’t safer

Mumbai: The air traffic control (ATC) official who averted the collision between a Jet Airways flight and an Indigo aircraft on Wednesday had a slice of luck. Spotting the Indigo plane from the ATC tower located a few hundred metres away was not easy, especially because the airfield was pitch dark.
As in this case, lack of coordination between air and ground traffic control was the common factor in the past few near-mishaps. Simply put, a plane on the tarmac stood in the way of a plane about to land or vice versa.
On April 20, a Kingfisher flight to Bhavnagar carrying 30 had to abort take-off because a GoAir flight that had just landed was late in vacating the runway. Similarly, a Kingfisher flight cancelled take-off because an Air India flight landed on the same runway last October.
Air safety experts feel that a Surface Movement Radar (SMR) would make the ATC’s work simpler by ensuring proper coordination between ground and air traffic.
A Directorate General of Civil Aviation preliminary report on Wednesday’s incident also recommended installation of the SMR. The radar can capture anything, from a dog to a jumbo jet, moving on the tarmac even during low visibility. “It makes traffic management in the air and on the ground easy,” said MG Jhunghare, general manager, ATC (western region).
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has procured the radar but it is lying wrapped in boxes because officials are struggling to find a suitable spot to install it.
29/05/10 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Airports May 2010, Safety May 2010