Probe: President choppers did not have ATC clearance

Among the recommendations is one for reintroducing the rule for closure of airspace before and after landing of VVIP flights but reducing the early 10 minute stipulated closure to three minutes.

The Committee has categorised the near miss as a serious incident and during its proceedings found that the flight paths prepared during internal investigations by the IAF and the AAI differed drastically and contained self-contradictions which did not correlate with evidence collected by the probe team.

Five attributable factors have been listed by the Committee after examining ATC and cockpit transcripts and going through oral and documentary submissions:

• Pratap 2 (the IAF helicopter that was involved in the near-miss and was seconds away from colliding with the Airbus) landed without taking clearance from ATC even before the Pratap formation reported the finals (approach to runway).

• Pratap 2 landed directly on Runway 27 by making a very short circuit. (The inquiry team correlated or simulated the flight paths and timings and concluded: It is evident Pratap 2 had broken off from the formation and landed directly at a landing place between W and R and did not follow any traffic circuit)

• Pratap 1 and Pratap 3 also landed without landing clearance from the Mumbai ATC.

There was a late transfer of control of the aircraft from the approach to the ATC tower. IAF officials pointed out that if this had been done,the helicopter formation would have known the position of IC-866 and the near-disaster would have been averted.

There was unsatisfactory coordination among various agencies (including the IAF,the AAI and the Home Ministry) for handling the VVIP flight and several Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were not followed,the report says.

It is evident that the IAF persisted with defending the role of its pilots even during the inquiry as its officials stated that the Pratap formation had landed without obtaining clearance due to security and safety of VVIP. IAF officials also argued that landing clearance should have been given to the two MI-8s and MI-17 by the ATC on their own.

An important aspect of the near miss inquiry is that it has laid bare a number of loopholes in coordination of VVIP flights.

For instance,the inquiry has revealed that the AAI has never been given a copy of the Home Ministrys bluebook which contains rules and instructions for VVIP travel. Also,the Committee discovered that no minutes of the coordination meeting held in Mumbai prior to the Presidents visit were prepared and that ATC and DGCA officials were not even asked to attend it.

The Committee has also noted how there was no clear understanding between the IAF and AAI regarding the operation of formation flight and the RT (radiotelephony) procedure to be followed and that the IAFs viewpoint was that the flight sequence was kept a secret by them for security reasons.