NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into December 2, 2016 near miss incident between Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 and an Alliance Air ATR turboprop over Nagpur.
The incident, which was serious breach of separation, initial reports blamed pilots and and Air Traffic Control for the incident.
The DGCA will probe the lapses on part of the pilots and the ATC, an official said.
The Air Traffic Control (ATC) had assigned the Jet Airways flight 9W792, travelling from Indore to Delhi, to fly at 16,000 feet, but the flight ascended to 17,800 feet bringing it in close proximity to the Gwalior-Mumbai Alliance Air flight CD-628, which was flying at its assigned 18,000 feet.
As a result, alarm bells rang in the cockpits of two flights after they came in close proximity to each other. Sources said the lateral distance (horizontal) was reduced to 4 nautical miles (7.4 kilometres),” said ATC officials.
However Jet Airways had then maintained that the incident occurred when the flight was on routine climb. The airline had said that the event was reported to DGCA and Jet Airways was extending full support for the investigation.
The December 2 near-miss came on the heels of similar incidents in October and November.
The DGCA is also probing similar incidents that happened on October 22 when a GoAir aircraft did not follow the instructions issued by the Goa ATC. In the second incident, also being probed by DGCA , an IndiGo Airbus A320 plane and a KLM Boeing Dreamliner aircraft came into close proximity on November 2.