When nightmares travel

It was also time to fill up the various log books and prepare reports on the machine. Then camethe crew8217;s coffee break. Down below Jaipur and then Pratapgarh were crossed without a hitch. The only strong opposition to the aircraft, if any, was the westerly wind blowing from the starboard side making the aircraft computer resort to constant corrections. The machine was automatic but the men behind the machine were on constant alert to ensure the flight safety of the machine and take corrective action, if required.

The routine continued for 1 hour and 12 minutes and Mumbai was now less than 100 nautical miles away. It was time to descend with the permission of the Mumbai air traffic controller. Flight AI 319 repeatedly requested permission from Mumbai, but in vain. There were more than a dozen aircraft at a time hovering in and around Mumbai, at different levels and various directions crying for descent. No, they all have to wait. The air traffic controllers are on strike. Their demands remain unfulfilled. They are going slow. Since they are going slow, all aircraft approaching the commercial andaviation capital of India also must fly slow. Passengers should get to see Mumbai from up there but should delay their arrival in the city because air traffic controllers are controlling the sky and as long as they are in control the passengers have to remain in the sky.

Forget the world, even if it means a reenactment of what happened on November 12, 1996 8212; the mid-air collision at Charki-Dadri near Delhi. Forget the fact that India holds the world record for having the highest number of deaths caused by mid-air disasters. Forget the fact that A-I Flight 319, despite its full load of passengers, will be a hopeless loser as the prospective operating profit turns into an operating loss. This is the price for keeping the aircraft air-borne for 35 minutes, resulting in the aircraft having consumed 12.6 tons, instead of 8.5 tons. Fuel is meant for burning, isn8217;t it? What difference does all this make to loss-making Air-India and anyway it8217;s only a Delhi-Mumbai flight.

So far as descent is concerned, didnot A-I Flight 319 get an opportunity to have a Bombay-by-nite darshan at various levels? Is it not an unforgettable experience? Instead of expressing gratitude for it, how dare one criticises the controllers of the sky? It was their privilege to give you direction and it is your duty to obey command. The 200 passengers in the aircraft got to see Bombay from 24,000 ft, 22,000 ft, 19,000 ft, 18,000 ft, 16,000 ft, 14,000 ft, 13,000 ft, 12,000 ft, 11,000 ft and 9,000 ft. They saw Bombay from all angles, right or wrong. Don8217;t they realise that the controllers are helping the cause of tourism in this great country!

The passengers on A-I Flight 319 then wake up to a sad situation 8212; they are now descending, I meant really, really descending, and it is no joke. The Bombay-by-nite darshan is over. Unfortunately, the air traffic controllers have cleared the way for them to descend further to 7,000 ft. So, now they get to see the Arabian Sea and Western Ghats. Thereafter they will turn right and makea 180-degree backtrack and descend to 3,700 ft, cross the Ghats once again at an approach speed of 165 nautical miles and lower the landing gear, 6 nautical miles away from the Mumbai runway 27-09 at a height of 1500 ft and will 8220;really8221; and this time really land on a 3489-metre long cement track at 12.57 am. The air-hostess had declared at the beginning of the flight that it would take 1 hour and 30 minutes. What does it matter that it actually took 2 hours and 07 minutes? The passengers, despite alighting in the remote bay at 1.16 am, have all dispersed.

That was the nightmarish Saturday of A-I Flight 319. One would have taken all this in one8217;s stride lightly had it been a light matter. But that is not the case. Quite the opposite. All national and international flights are going through mental agony and torture inflicted by the controllers of the sky and the result thereof is shocking.

The implications too are potentially lethal. Cockpit crew are under more than normal pressure at the fag end of aflight. Their concentration too is at its lowest ebb. Fatigue takes it toll. Their impatience is understandable and irritation not unjustified. Their anxiety is visible as mistakes cannot be ruled out. When morale is down, the operational environment of an airline is adversely affected. Avoidable holding in the air implies less number of flights owing to delays and, therefore, an increase in turn-around time. It also means a less number of flights at peak hours, hence the loss of revenue landing, parking charges, and so on and low returns for the Government of India. It also means a low use of the runway owing to more time being unutilised. That, too, is not very sound aviation economics.

The worst possibility, however, is the enhanced probability of a human error occurring in the air. One has to perceive this reality to believe how bad, chaotic and potentially disastrous the scene can be owing to the go slow of the air traffic controllers. Whether the air traffic controllers are right or wrong in theirdemands, the fact remains that they are certainly wrong in adopting this form of agitation vis-a-vis airborne craft. Unfortunately, in India cabinet ministers, chief ministers, secretaries to the government of India and the service chief can be replaced, but no one dare take any action against these wrongdoers who control the air.

The author is an alumnus of National Defence College of India