Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION be pleased to state:-

(a)        whether it is a fact that on 27th January, 2009 seven aircrafts lost all contacts with Air Traffic Controller (ATC) in Kolkata for almost 20 minutes;

(b)        if so, the details thereof; and

(c)        what action Government is going to take a avert such occurrence in future?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION
( SHRI PRAFUL PATEL )

(a)&(b) No, Sir. However, there was problem in on-board VHF equipments of one Jet Airways aircraft which resulted in jamming of frequency and blocking other aircraft operating on the same frequency. There were four other aircraft operating at the same time which were subsequently advised to change over to other frequency and operate on other frequency.

(c) To deal with such situations in accordance with ICAO Standards a procedure is already in place which was followed in the instant case also.