New Delhi: India's dangerous western neighbourhood that is kept under aerial surveillance by military planes of global superpowers gave the jitters to some international commercial flights flying over the Arabian Sea about 450 to 480km from Mumbai's coastline early on Saturday morning.
An Etihad aircraft winging its way from Abu Dhabi to the Far East had its traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) alarm going off loudly in the cockpit at 6.54am (IST), indicating that another aircraft had got dangerously close to it by breaching the minimum 1,000 feet of vertical separation that has to be maintained for safety.
Some other international airlines flying near Mumbai on Saturday morning also reportedly had their TCAS buzzing. The warning came when the aircraft — not originating from or destined for Mumbai — were on aerial route P-574 between the reporting points Bodik and Adpap over the Arabian Sea and flying at 36,500 feet, said sources.
"The indication Etihad aircraft got was of an unidentified plane flying just 500 feet below it. It immediately reported this to the Mumbai air traffic control (ATC), which had no such plane on its radar nor had any information of another aircraft being supposed to be so close below the Etihad flight," said a senior official.
Luckily for Etihad and other airliners which had their collision alarms ringing, said sources, the breach of vertical separation (500 feet) was not serious enough to lead to the triggering off of their "resolutionary advisory" in which an automatic message is generated for pilots to immediately change course to avoid collision.
07/09/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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An Etihad aircraft winging its way from Abu Dhabi to the Far East had its traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) alarm going off loudly in the cockpit at 6.54am (IST), indicating that another aircraft had got dangerously close to it by breaching the minimum 1,000 feet of vertical separation that has to be maintained for safety.
Some other international airlines flying near Mumbai on Saturday morning also reportedly had their TCAS buzzing. The warning came when the aircraft — not originating from or destined for Mumbai — were on aerial route P-574 between the reporting points Bodik and Adpap over the Arabian Sea and flying at 36,500 feet, said sources.
"The indication Etihad aircraft got was of an unidentified plane flying just 500 feet below it. It immediately reported this to the Mumbai air traffic control (ATC), which had no such plane on its radar nor had any information of another aircraft being supposed to be so close below the Etihad flight," said a senior official.
Luckily for Etihad and other airliners which had their collision alarms ringing, said sources, the breach of vertical separation (500 feet) was not serious enough to lead to the triggering off of their "resolutionary advisory" in which an automatic message is generated for pilots to immediately change course to avoid collision.
07/09/14 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
