Radio blackout sparks flight scare, DGCA orders probe

Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated a probe into the Wednesday afternoon’s incident, wherein repeated attempts by Air Traffic Control (ATC) to establish radio contact with pilots of a Kingfisher Airlines airbus A321, carrying 162 passengers, drew a blank, causing panic among Nagpur air controllers as the aircraft flew for 30 minutes without any response from the cockpit.
Director General Naseem Zaidi said the air safety director will probe whether the incident involving the Delhi-Bangalore flight took place due to lapses in following standard operating procedures by pilots and ATC or due to a technical snag.
According to sources, Kingfisher flight (IT 3214) took off from Delhi at 2.05 pm. “The flight was assigned 33,000 feet and was, initially, in contact with the Delhi ATC, which asked it to report to Nagpur area control as it flew southwards.
Not only did the pilots failed to contact the controllers, but they also didn’t respond to calls on regular and emergency VHF frequencies by the ATC and other flights in the vicinity to establish contact with them,” sources said.
However, the plane, which was being constantly tracked on the radar, maintained the assigned flight level, they added.
26/09/10 Aneesh Phadnis/Mumbai Mirror

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Categories: airports Sep 2010, Kingfisher Sep 2010, Safety Sep 2010