Near collision that wasn’t

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 1

Contrary to some reports that a collision between an IAF transport aircraft and an Air Vistara passenger aircraft was narrowly averted at the Chandigarh airport on Saturday, it has now emerged that what happened on ground was a routine maneuver to give preferred landing to another aircraft and there was no serious situation.

The civilian aircraft, according to IAF sources, was in the process of lining up on the runway and was yet to get final clearance for take-off from the Air Traffic Control (ATC), when it was directed to move on to a taxi track to make way for an incoming IAF aircraft. 

IAF sources said an AN-32 twin-engined medium lift turboprop was overhead on a “bad weather circuit” and given the flight parameters of such a circuit had little room for maneuver. In bad weather circuit the pilot is required to keep the runway in visual sight at all times while orbiting due to low cloud cover and poor visibility. It is generally carried out at a height of 500 feet as compared to 1,000 feet for normal conditions. “The ATC’s calculation was that the incoming AN-32 in adverse conditions was getting closer to the runway approach and it would have to be given preference as the Vistara aircraft would not take off because it was lining up and not yet opened full power to commence its take-off run. Hence, the ATC asked the civilian aircraft to roll ahead and turn onto a taxi link to clear the runway for the incoming AN-32,” a senior IAF officer said.

Explaining that an “aborted take off” is one where an aircraft has opened up full power and released brakes for its take-off run and brought to a halt before it gets airborne, the officer said that aborted take-off are highly risky as there is a high probability of the accelerating aircraft overshooting the runway. “This was not the case here and there was no question of the two aircraft being on a collision course,” he added.