'Mid-air misses on the rise since 2007'

New Delhi: Indian aviation may be growing exponentially but the crowded skies are witnessing a rising incidence of aircraft getting uncomfortably close to each other violating the minimum distance they must maintain for safe flying. According to the Airports Authority of India, the air proximity rate has been rising sharply since 2007 after falling from the record high seen in 2000-01.
An airprox happens when two aircraft breach the minimum vertical distance of 1,000 feet till a height of 41,000 feet or the horizontal distance of 9km. While not all airprox mean that the planes were headed on a collision course, some of these incidents have been close.
Measured in airprox per lakh flights, the figure touched its peak in 2000 when it soared to 1.4. Since then it fell to less than one in 2004-05. From 2005-06, this figure fell till 2007-08 due to better management. But from then, it has been rising again and inching close to one in 2009-10.
24/06/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Safety Jun 2010