Jet Airways B773 near Cologne on Feb 16th 2017, loss of communication leads to intercept
Last Update: February 20, 2017 / 11:59:51 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Feb 16, 2017
Classification
Incident
Airline
Jet Airways
Flight number
9W-118
Departure
Mumbai, India
Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
VT-JEX
Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300
ICAO Type Designator
B773
On Feb 19th 2017, following release of initial coverage, The Aviation Herald received information that radio contact with the aircraft had been lost on hand off from Bratislava to Prague Center, a swap of digits is being suspected (the crew tuned 132.980MHz while the correct frequency was 132.890MHz). Germany dispatched two Eurofighter Aircraft when the Boeing 777 entered Germany's Airspace. Radio contact with the aircraft was restored about 60nm north of Nuremberg, the fighter aircraft began to slow down expecting the intercept would be aborted, a decision was made however to continue and complete the intercept. Air Traffic Control informed 9W-118 as well as the other aircraft, flying above and behind 9W-118, about the pending intercept. The fighter aircraft met with 9W-118 northeast of Frankfurt (Germany) and were seen by ground observers at about 16:50Z about 20nm north of Cologne still at the side of 9W-118.
On Feb 20th 2017 Air Navigation Services Czech Republic reported, that the actual communication for the hand off from Bratislava to Prague at 15:53Z had been correct (frequency 132.890MHz transmitted and acknowledged), however, the crew subsequently tuned frequency 132.980MHz, the crew did not monitor the emergency frequency. Prague Center spotted another Jet Airways aircraft, flight 9W-122 from Delhi (India) to London Heathrow, flying under control of Rhein Control (Germany) south of the Czech Republic, via Rhein Control and 9W-122 an ACARS message was transmitted to 9W-118 asking them to contact (Prague Center) frequency 132.065MHz. When 9W-118 reported on that frequency at 16:26Z (loss of communication thus lasted for 33 minutes), the aircraft was already in German Airspace and was instructed to contact Rhein Control. Czech ATC immediately informed their military counterpart (Czech control and reporting center) that contact had been re-established.
The airline confirmed that contact between aircraft and ATC was briefly lost while flying over Germany. Contact was restored a few minutes later. Germany's Air Force deployed their aircraft to ensure safety of aircraft and its occupants. Both pilots have been de-rostered pending investigation.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Feb 16, 2017
Classification
Incident
Airline
Jet Airways
Flight number
9W-118
Departure
Mumbai, India
Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
VT-JEX
Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300
ICAO Type Designator
B773
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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