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.
"DGCA can issue such a notice as part of an inquiry, but cannot be judgmental before going through the tape transcripts of the flight operations that led to the incident. This was not done," said D K Behera, general secretary of Air Traffic Controllers Guild (India). "The terminology used in the letter proves a premature approach by the aviation regulatory body."
Some veterans of the sector support this. V Krishnan, a member of the civil aviation safety advisory council, said instead of suspending the ATC officer, DGCA should have suspended the licence of Chennai airport for closing a vital taxi track during the peak hour. "Going through the details of the incident, we can see that the real reason was the lack of taxiways," he said.
A senior DGCA official, who refused to comment on the terminology used in the letter, said the notice was issued only to initiate an investigation into the incident, and but not to blame the official. "Removing the official concerned from tower operations is a routine practice across the world till the investigation is completed," he said.
Behera agreed the letter was a routine, but found the wording implicating the officer was prejudiced. "If DGCA can predict the reason before the investigation and studying the tape transcripts, what is the need for an inquiry," he asked.
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