Thursday, November 13, 2014

Ambani plane pilots goof, create panic in Mumbai

NEW DELHI: This is the mother of all false alarms.

The private Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) Mukesh Ambani gifted to wife Nita on her birthday seven years ago created a major scare at Mumbai airport on Monday night. The aircraft repeatedly emitted "May Day" signal to Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) tower. The pilots of the "Delhi-Lahore-Muscat" flight were screaming: "Karachi, Muscat we are going to ditch". Their engine was on fire and the plane was going to crash!

There was obvious panic in the ATC tower after the first "international air distress" signal came just after 8.30pm, with controllers frantically contacting their Karachi, Muscat and Delhi counterparts to find out what exactly was happening.

The aircraft call sign and registration number that accompanied the mayday signal on the emergency 121.5 hertz revealed the aircraft was Ambani's personal business jet and the panic mounted when the second May Day came six minutes later. This signal indicates that the aircraft is in an emergency situation beyond control of pilots and that whoever is nearby should rush for help.

Karachi and Muscat told Mumbai that they were neither in contact with any such flight number, nor had any aircraft reported an engine fire or loss of controls leading to May Day calls. After drawing a blank there, the ATC used the signal's "direction finder" and asked the ground staff of Mumbai airport to check the aircraft parked in the direction of private jet hangars as the signal was coming from ground.

"The ground staff found that the signal was coming from Ambani's ACJ, a super luxury Airbus A-319, safely parked in a hangar and not going anywhere. Two pilots were in the cockpit," said an official.

Seething with anger at the unprecedented scare that lasted for almost two hours, the ATC conducted a probe into the pilots' behavior and what they found has left them even angrier. "The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) was to conduct an evacuation exercise of theambani ACJ on Tuesday to see if the crew can safely lead its occupants out in the required time in case of an emergency. Reliance Commercial Developers Pvt Ltd (RCDL), which operates this plane, was practising for the upcoming safety drill. The pilots have told us that they switched on the emergency May Day switch inadvertently and broadcast their practise message to us, which they are not supposed to do during drills," said an official.

The good news was that the aircraft broadcast was working. The bad news was that it should not have been used to spread panic like this 'inadvertently' by the pilots.

Based on the pilots' testimony, the ATC has now submitted its report to the DGCA. "What the pilots did in preparation of an upcoming drill was wrong. We have submitted our report to the regulator. Now it is up to them to take further action," said the official.

A senior DGCA official said that RCDL had "failed the drill". Mukesh had gifted the about Rs 250-crore aircraft to Nita on her birthday in November 2007.


- Source:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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