New Delhi: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had a mid-air scare during her visit to Srinagar on September 10 as her plane got involved in air-miss situation with a Virgin Atlantic flight over Delhi.
While the Directorate General of Civil Aviation now claims that the incident was not one which could have resulted in a mishap, it has nonetheless ordered a probe into the incident. They investigation would be completed in about a week.
They said the DGCA was checking the flight data recorder and air traffic control records as part of the inquest being carried out.
DGCA sources, however, admit that it was a ‘procedural breach’ of regulations laid down for lateral and vertical separation between two aircraft flying at a certain height. It was this lapse which resulted in the ‘air-miss’ as opposed to ‘near-miss’.
The DGCA, however, asserts that there was never a possibility of a mid-air collision. They have also pointed out that no airport falling on the route of the two aircraft, then flying over Punjab, reported any traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) warning.
Elaborating on the September 10 incident, the sources said Gandhi was returning to the capital from Srinagar in a VIP jet, a Boeing 737 of the IAF, when it came close to Virgin's Airbus A-340 plane coming from London.
The ‘breach’ occurred when the two aircraft came close at a vertical separation of 1,000 feet, instead of 2,000 feet.
According to guidelines, planes that are flying at over 29,000 feet and are Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) compliant could fly at a vertical separation of 1,000 feet.
However, it was found that the IAF Boeing was not RVSM-compliant and, therefore, should have maintained a separation of 2,000 feet, the sources said.
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