Jet has always had issues like this directly concerned with poor Pilot training: super hard landings, tire blowouts, runway overruns(3x), sliding off the runway (2x), engines falling off aircraft on takeoff run (MAA bound 737 VT-JAW), landing on taxiways etc....

But kudos to their media and PR divisions for managing the fallout!! Do we hear the kind of discussion that inevitably follows a flight delay on IC?

9W's pilots have a reputation for riding roughshod over ATC folks: arrogantly DEMANDING higher cruise altitudes even for short hauls, and priority landing, sometimes even faking fuel shortage etc.

This is Airliners-India.net member Bhargavi's report!!

Jet Airways airliner escapes mid-air disaster

Bhargavi Kerur
Friday, September 22, 2006  00:50 IST

 
BANGALORE: A Jet Airways flight 9W 345, bound for Rajkot from Mumbai, narrowly escaped a fiery disaster on Thursday when its captain, with only seconds to spare, propelled the Boeing 737-700 out of a collision course with an Indian Air Force Sukhoi 30MKI fighter.

The passenger aircraft, having descended to 25,000 feet for landing, was just 500 feet away from the air force plane when the Jet pilot effected a sudden, life-saving ascent to 26,000 feet. The minimum distance that must be maintained between two aircraft being tracked on radar is 10 miles. The minimum vertical distance required is 1000 feet.

The pilot performed the emergency manoeuvre in response to a warning flashed by the Traffic Collision Avoidance System installed in the aircraft.

Although the 89 passengers on board were unhurt, reports from Rajkot said the sudden, powerful thrust needed for the abrupt climb may have damaged the engine.

Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer confirmed news of the near collision and said the Boeing has been grounded at Rajkot for checks.

The incident occurred at 8:30am during the IAF’s ‘Gagan Shakti’ exercise and involved a Sukhoi 30MKI formation.

Aviation sources were puzzled by the incident as the Jet plane was flying in a scheduled slot and its flight path should have been known to the IAF.

An IAF spokesman played down the incident. “We call it a proximity incident as our controlling officer on ground has witnessed it,” he said. “We are conducting an inquiry.” The directorate general of civil aviation is conducting a separate investigation.

“Prima facie reports suggest that the fighter aircraft did not pose any threat to the civil airliner as they were under the control of ground-based radar and in visual contact,” the IAF spokesman said.
 

Only correction here is that it was a 737-400.

COUGAR wrote:

---

9W's pilots have a reputation for riding roughshod over ATC folks: arrogantly DEMANDING higher cruise altitudes even for short hauls, and priority landing, sometimes even faking fuel shortage etc.

 

---

faking fuel shortage reminds me of the ATR incident a couple of months ago. it was not fake, it was stupid!

New Delhi: The Jet Airways Boeing aircraft and two Sukhoi fighters flying over Rajkot had a close shave on Thursday.

The Jet aircraft was just 500 feet away from the Air Force plane when the Jet pilot made a sudden ascent to 26,000 feet. Earlier this week, a Jet Airways plane flying from Rajkot to Mumbai had another near miss with an Air Force jet.

The Air Force is in the middle of its biggest air exercise in the last 4 years. Sources say lack of information sharing between civilian and military air traffic controllers can lead to more near misses.

Aviation in India has been growing at 25 per cent every year and with newer airlines being added, the problem is bound to rise. The skies over North India are particularly vulnerable, since the Air Force controls over 70 per cent of the airspace here.

Air traffic controllers blame the lack of coordination with the Air Force for the near misses. "I admit there is a coordination problem between the ATC unit of civil and adjacent airforce units. So many times, it creates a critical situation," says former General Secretary of the ATC guild, R K Singh.

In January last year, an Air India plane had a near mishap, coming dangerously close to an Air Force Sukhoi jet.

The Jet aircraft was 500 feet away from the Air Force plane when the Jet pilot made a sudden ascent.

There have been several attempts to make civilian and Air Force controllers work in tandem. But it hasn't been a very successful exercise so far.

"We are going in for better communication systems and we are also looking at joint trainings so that both the civil as well as military airliners understand each other's work culture," says the spokesperson Air Force, Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani.

Aircraft movement has doubled in the last three years and so have near air misses - from 13 in 2003 to 21 in 2005 and most of these don't involve military aircraft.

But with the sector growing at such a furious pace, coordination with the air force will be key, as they still control a major portion of the Indian skies.

Now I know that 9W does not have any 707s but I haven't heard of an airline called 8W!!!

lol.....just pulling your leg, 380

the_380 wrote:

---

Thats amusing to hear.... never knew 8W had 707s

rgds

the_380

---