Sparring begins with probe into Chennai airport scare

Chennai: A conflict is in the air after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended an air traffic control (ATC) officer following an incident that brought three aircraft too close at Chennai airport on September 24. The Air Traffic Controllers' Guild (India) has hit out at the DGCA for not following the procedure before suspending the official.
The ATC had aborted the take-off of a Jet Airways flight to avoid a probable collision with an Air India plane that rejected landing at the last minute. The Jet Airways flight was about to take-off when the pilot saw the tail of an Indigo plane which had not yet vacated the runway after landing a few minutes earlier.
A couple of days ago, the air safety director at DGCA wrote to the official who handled the channel of flights on the day of the incident, saying he had "failed to provide safe air traffic control." This left a few officials angry.
05/10/11 Arun Janardhanan/Times of India

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Categories: airports Oct 2011, Safety Oct 2011