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PIA 777:Dale Coleman
Emirates 777: Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland
This is the story of pakistan international airlines flight 301, On the 7th of january 2020 a pakistan international airlines 777 was flying from islamabad to karachi. At 7:26 am UTC flight 301 was at 40000 feet getting ready for the descent into karachi. The airtraffic controller told the pilots of flight 301 to expect runway 7 right at karachi. This so far had been a normal flight and everyone was looking forward to an uneventful landing in karachi. Now the pilots just had to let ATC know when they were ready to descend and then the controller would clear them down. Within a few minutes flight 301 was down to 35000 feet and the controller cleared them to the way point MAKLI. At 7:39 am the air traffic controller said “When ready descend to FL180”. Now that flight 301 had been cleared down to 18000 feet the pilots of the pakistani 777 put the plane into a descent. But something had slipped through the cracks the, as pakistan international flight 301 started its descent another 777, this time an emirates 777 flying from dubai to delhi was flying in the opposite direction at 35000 feet. When the pakistani 777 started descending both planes were 70 nautical miles apart. With both jets at cruise speed that 70 nuaticals miles between them would be gone in a matter of minutes. In just three minutes that 70 nautical miles of separation had reduced to 15 and the pakistani 777 was still descending and the Emirates 777 was holding itself at 35000 feet. When they were 15 nm away the pakistani 777 was descending through 35,900 meaning that it was only 900 feet above the emirates 777. At 7:47 and 52 seconds, on the radar scope at air traffic control, both planes went from their default safe green color to a red. The STCA or Short term conflict alert had been automatically triggered this is to get the controllers attention about the developing situation. The controller immediately got in contact with Emirates flight 516 and said “UAE516 turn left by 10 degree
for spacing”. He was attempting to send the Emirates 777 to the left in an attempt to avoid a collision; he also asked the Pakistani 777 to turn to the left. The pilot of the emirates 777 just replied with “left” acknowledging the course change. Just as he did that the TCAS-RA sounded. The TCAS or the traffic collision and avoidance system is a system of transponders on airplanes that help pilots avoid traffic conflicts and collisions with other planes in an area. If two planes gets too close for comfort the TCAS system will give both planes complimentary resolution advisories to remedy the situation. In this case the TCAS system asked the Pakistani 777 to climb and it asked the Emirates 777 to descend. Both sets of pilots on both planes immediately listened to the automated warnings. The Pakistani 777 started climbing away and the Emirates 777 fell away at their closest point; both planes were only 400 feet apart vertically.
Once both planes had passed by each other the pakistani plane continued its descent and the Emirates 777 got back upto 35000 feet. The controller who was probably shaken by the near miss cleared the pakistani 777 down to 10000 feet and he was trying to figure out what had happened in the skies over pakistan. He called up the emirates 777 and asked them what altitude they were at and if they had overshot their target altitude of 35,000 feet. The pilots of the Emirates 777 told the controller that they were right where they were supposed to be and they had not overshot their target altitude when the TCAS resolution advisory happened . The Pakistani 777 made a safe landing at karachi with no issues whatsoever, the emirates 777 continued on its way to delhi with no issues.
These two planes had 693 people and so it was of paramount importance to find out what happened. On the day of the accident, the both planes were more or less heading towards each other. The pakistani 777 was descending and the emirates 777 was holding its altitude. One of those planes was not where they were supposed to be. The investigators listened to the tapes from that day to see what was said and how each set of pilots interpreted what was being said. They came to this seemingly innocuous sounding phrase from the air traffic controller. The controller when clearing the pakistani 777 to descend from 40,000 feet he said “when ready, descend to FL180”. He's basically telling the Pakistani 777 to descend when the Pakistani 777 was ready to descend. But this was in direct contrast to the SATI or the Station Air Traffic Instructions. The controller should have said ““When ready, descend to flight level.....Report Leaving”. It's a small change but it made a
19 сен 2024
