Scare in the air: 23 near-miss incidents in 2013

New Delhi: There have been 23 near-miss incidents in the country during the past year but none of them were due to shortage of air navigation service (ANS) staff, Rajya Sabha was informed today. Minister of State for Civil Aviation KC Venugopal said in reply to a question that there were 23 ‘airprox’ (air proximity or near-miss) incidents during the last one year but these were not caused by shortage of air traffic controllers.[caption id=“attachment_1384439” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Risk in the air. AFP[/caption] He said the Airports Authority of India has recruited 318, 294 and 188 air traffic controllers (ATCOs) in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively and its Board has approved the creation of 680 more posts for future requirements. Maintaining that some aircraft of Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet were not compliant with Category III Instrument Landing System needed for operations during thick fog, he said these planes, like the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Canadian Regional Jets, ATR turboprops and Bombardier Q400s, have been operating to and from Delhi during day time. Venugopal said six flying slots of IndiGo, GoAir and Jet were withdrawn by DGCA as they violated the aviation regulator’s instructions on flight operations during foggy conditions, leading to diversion of six flights from Delhi on 29 and 30 January. In response to another question, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said Air India’s pilots union Indian Commercial Pilots Association had raised issues relating to ‘unreliable weather radars’ in Airbus A-320 aircraft. He said due to redundancy of weather radar system in these airplanes, “the probability of such occurrences is very minimal”. “Though one radar is sufficient for safe operation, these aircraft have two independent radar system for redundancy and safety. Since there is no safety issue in this case and as there are no such mandatory modifications recommended from the manufacturer or DGCA in respect of weather radar, no action is proposed to be taken,” Singh said. PTI