The Hindu : When a cargo plane strayed into prohibited airspace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2003

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When a cargo plane strayed into prohibited airspace

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JAN. 21. Alarmed by the straying of a Lufthansa cargo plane into prohibited airspace — comprising the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Prime Minister's residence — authorities have restricted the holding provisions over the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.

The incident took place on November 20 last, when the cargo plane (LH-8443), on its way to Delhi from Kuala Lumpur, took a wrong turn and entered the prohibited airspace while it was approaching the holding area east of runway 28 at IGIA. The aircraft was cleared for approach a little before 6.30 a.m. and was asked to head for the holding area P-L on the east of runway 28 where it was to wait for its turn to land. However, on entering the holding area, sources said, the plane took a right turn instead of a left.

As the radar controller spotted the blip on his screen moving in the wrong direction, he warned the pilot. But by then, the pilot had already moved a certain distance and tried to turn left as a corrective measure. But this took the plane straight into the prohibited area.

As a result, the flight had to make a complete u-turn over the prohibited airspace and remained there for about a minute. It returned to the original path and landed at IGIA safely. The pilot was detained for three days and questioned by the Directorate of Civil Aviation as well as the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. Initially, he said the flight management system in his plane had malfunctioned. But later, he retracted this statement and admitted that he had committed an "error.''

The incident, however, had the security establishment in a spin. Under pressure to ensure that there was no scope for such "errors'' in future, the Airports Authority of India ordered some drastic changes on January 1 in the holding procedures at IGIA.

It is learnt that the one VHF Omni Range facility at Delhi meant to regulate flights put on hold has now been withdrawn. The eastern holding point P-L and another, L-M, have also been removed. Only the western holding point D-P-N towards Najafgarh in South-West Delhi has been retained. Here too, aircraft cannot be held above a level of 10,000 ft.

In effect, not more than three to four aircraft can be put on hold over the runway. The rest of the flights, according to officials, are now being held at three points which are several miles away from the airport. These are Sampla in the north-west (17 nautical miles from IGIA), Sakrar in the south (39 nautical miles) and Secunderabad in the east (34 nautical miles).

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