How Forgetting One Word Almost Killed 693 People | Pakistan International Airlines Flight 310

this is the story of pakistan international airlines flight 301 on the 7th of january 2020 a pakistan international airlines triple 7 was flying from islamabad to karachi at 7 26 am utc flight 301 was at 40 000 feet getting ready for the descent into karachi the air traffic 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 the controller would clear them down within a few minutes flight 301 was down to 35 000 feet and the controller cleared them down to the waypoint mackley at 7 39 a.m the controller said when ready to send to flight level 180 now flight 301 had been cleared down to 18 000 feet the pilots of the pakistani triple seven put the plane into a descent but something had slipped through the cracks as pakistan international flight 301 started its descent another triple seven this time an emirates triple seven flying from dubai to delhi was flying in the opposite direction at 35 000 feet when the pakistani triple 7 started descending both planes were 70 nautical miles apart with boat jets at cruise speed that 70 nautical 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 triple 7 was still descending and the emirati triple 7 was holding itself at 35 000 feet when they were 15 nautical miles away the pakistani triple 7 was descending through 35 900 feet meaning that it was only 900 feet above the emirates triple seven 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 bright red the stca or short-term conflict alert had automatically triggered this is to get the controller's attention about a developing situation the controller immediately got in contact with emirates flight 516 and said uae 516 turned left by 10 degrees for spacing he was attempting to send the emirates triple seven to the left in an attempt to avoid a collision he also asked the pakistani triple seven to turn to the left the pilots of the emirate triple seven 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 get too close for comfort the tcas system will give both planes complementary resolution advisories to remedy the situation in this case the tcas system asked the pakistani triple 7 to climb and it asked the emirates triple 7 to descend both sets of pilots on both planes immediately listened to the automated warnings the pakistani triple seven started climbing away and the emirates triple seven 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 triple 7 got back up to 35 000 feet the controller who was probably shaken by the near miss cleared the pakistani triple seven down to ten thousand feet and he was just trying to figure out what had happened in the skies over pakistan he called up the emirates triple seven and asked them what altitude that they were at and if they had overshot their target altitude of 35 000 feet the pilots at the emirates triple 7 told the controller that they were right where they were supposed to be and that they had not overshot their target altitude when the tcas resolution advisory occurred the pakistani triple seven made a safe landing at karachi with no issues whatsoever and the emirates triple seven continued on its way to delhi with no issues these two planes between them had 693 people on board so it was of paramount importance to find out what had happened on the day of the accident both planes were more or less heading towards each other the pakistani triple seven was descending and the emirates triple seven 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 the seemingly innocuous sounding phrase from the air traffic controller the controller when clearing the pakistani triple 7 to descend from 40 000 feet he said when ready descend to flight level one eight zero he's basically telling the pakistani triple seven to descend when the pakistani triple seven wants to descend but this was in direct contrast to the sati or the station air traffic instructions controller should have said when ready to send to flight level 180 report leaving it's a small change but it made a world of difference for one when such a clearance was given two controllers namely the area radar controller east and the area procedure controller east needed to coordinate first so that both of them were on the same page that did not happen moreover due to the way the instruction was worded the pilots of the pakistani triple 7 never informed atc when they started their descent from 40 000 feet that was important had the controllers known that flight 301 was making its way down then they might have been able to spot the two planes that were on a collision course but the thing is things should have not gotten this bad why was the pakistani triple seven allowed to descend when the emirates triple seven was so close to it coming in in the opposite direction to understand this we need to get into the mindset of the controller at the time we need to see what he saw this is the screen of the radar controller when he cleared the pakistani triple seven down to 18 000 feet if you look at the screen you can see that when the clearance was given the only traffic that was immediately visible was the atr 72 that was at 17 000 feet so asking the pakistani triple 7 to descend was not a bad move with that picture but within a few minutes the traffic situation had changed the atr was out of the picture and the emirates triple 7 was making its way towards the pakistani triple seven this big change was missed by the controller ideally he should have amended his clearance asking the pakistani plane to hold or asking them to reroute so that a bit of separation could be maintained but that did not happen by the time the controller did ask the pilots to do something the pilots were already following the tgas resolution advisories a reason why the controller may have missed this traffic conflict might be due to the fact that he was supervising a student at the time that may have taken away his attention from the task at hand what do you think in your opinion do you think training the student was too much for the controller let me know your thoughts in the comments below in the wake of this near miss the pakistani authorities double down on refresher training for its controllers which is a great thing because air traffic control is not just dependent on what's happening right now but also on what will happen in the future you as an air traffic controller should be able to anticipate the consequences of your actions what happens if you reroute a plane in a certain way or what happens if you ask a plane to speed up all those decisions have consequences and it's your duty to make sure that those are good decisions in addition to that the controllers needed to be able to think on their feet and respond to evolving threats a refresher course would allow controllers to do that better in addition to that improvement and collaboration between controllers is also emphasized in the report in case of an emergency information needs to flow fast and decisions need to be taken as soon as possible what do you think can be done to prevent something like this from happening again let me know this near miss could have been absolutely disastrous if things had gone slightly differently both planes had 693 people between them if someone had taken a bit too long to react or if someone had decided to delay their evasive maneuvers this could have easily been the world's worst air crash eclipsing the on-ground collision in tenerife if anything this video is a testament to modern technology and the margins that it affords us you can always have the best controllers the best pilots but they're only human and they will make mistakes every now and then we now live in an age where the technology that accompanies those humans can kick in and save the day if this scenario had happened 40 or 50 years ago do you think the outcome would have been same or do you think it would have been more disastrous let me know your thoughts in the comments below if you want to watch another video on a near miss then i highly recommend my video on a spicejet near miss over india link on your screen right now thank you for watching this episode of mini air crash investigation if you like the videos that i make do consider liking and subscribing it will really help the channel grow i will catch you guys next time stay safe

Channel: Mini Air Crash Investigation

Views: 516,773

Keywords: air crash invetsigation, why planes crash, air crash confidetial, pakistan, pakistan international airlines, this almost was the worlds worst air crash, emirates mid air collsion, pakistan international airlines crash, aviation safety, aviation, pakistan 777, emirates 777, neat miss over pakistan, mid air collision, near miss, mentour pilot, theflightchannel, aviation educational, boeing, boeing 777, plane crash in pakistan, emirates 516, emiarets airlines, emirates collision

Id: 9LgJBZOlDKE

Length: 9min 48sec (588 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2022