November 2012 - Indian Airforce

Wg Cdr PC Kalia
HISTORY
REPEATS ITSELF
The old adage, ‘Accidents happen when you
expect them the least’ has a special bonding
with IAF, perhaps because of the kind of business
we are in. At times it seems as if Mr Murphy is always
on the lookout for you to commit a mistake so that he
can play his part.
These incidents although more than a decade
old, never fade from my memory. Instead the lessons
learnt from these incidents have helped me in averting
a major mishap in the recent past.
On a beautiful Sunday morning, when the visibility
was in excess of 10 Km (CAVOK in aviation lexicon),
a young Pilot Officer was relaxing in the ATC tower
because no one apart from birds was flying in the
area. He was jolted out of the comfort of a full back
Godrej chair by a call from an Air India Flt from Delhi
to Chandigarh. He rattled out the weather report and
asked the ac to “report for descent”. Over ONOGI (121
deg 21.5 NM from VICG) the pilot requested “a left
hand orbit to lose altitude” and “permission to report
direct finals for runway 29”. The same was granted by
the controller in a near mechanical response. While
in orbit, the pilot reported “runway in-sight”; he was
“cleared descent to circuit altitude” and asked to
“report finals for runway 29”. After a while, the pilot
reported “finals for runway 29” and sought “permission
to land”. As per the drill, the controller looked at the
Airman On Look-Out (AOLO) (fondly called ‘The Third
Eye’ of the controller) who indicated ‘ac not in sight’ by
vigorously waving his hand. The controller couldn’t
believe this and asked him to use the binoculars to
spot the ac (Boeing class in CAVOK conditions). In a
state of disbelief himself, the controller once again
asked the ac to “report position”, to which the pilot
angrily replied, “finals, request permission to land.”
You could call it ‘sixth sense awakening’ or the
result of meticulous training at ATCOTE, where past
experiences shared by the DS had left a lasting
impression in the minds of the budding ATCOs,
much more than the writings in text books. The
controller looked at the DRDF (now replaced by
CADF) and to his utter shock saw that the homing
indicated was Northerly instead of 290 or so. He
literally jumped out of the chair and shouted in a
single breath, words rarely heard in ATC, “(call Sign),
Homing indicated is ______, wherever you are,
climb to 6200 feet (initial approach altitude) and
report steady.” Getting no response from the pilot,
he repeated (rather shouted) the call, possibly in
the same breath. Now, he heard the pilot meekly
saying “Roger”. Complete silence in the tower
was disturbed only by the heavy breathing of
the DATCO. After a while, the AOLO indicated the
“aircraft in sight” and pointed towards the South
of runway. Rest everything was what they call
‘history’.
On another occasion at the same base, the
same youngster was on duty (operating from the
alternate semi-underground ATC) and giving him
company was the COO of the base. A transport ac
(AN-32) was carrying out an air test overhead at an
altitude of 27000 feet. As this was the only ac flying
at the time, on “request for rejoin”, he was “cleared
descend to Initial Approach Altitude (6200 feet)
and report runway in sight”. On receiving the call
of “visual with runway”, he was cleared to report
downwind, followed by “call finals for runway 29”.
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Aerospace Safety N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 2
INDIAN AIR FORCE