Probe into panic-invoking mock drill on Reliance aircraft

The civil aviation regulator has called for a probe into an incident at the airport here involving the pilots of Reliance Commercial Developers that sparked a two-hour panic with an inadvertent distress call, officials said.

"The preliminary investigations suggest it was a part of a mock safety drill that we call for from time to time. But a more detailed report is expected by next week," a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told IANS.

The officials said as per availbale information, when the pilots were conducting a mock safety drill, they apparently forgot to switch off the aircraft's main radio frequency while checking the onboard emergency systems.

"Yes, a mock drill was carried out as per the guidelines on the evening of Nov 10. It involved the aircraft in question which was parked in a hangar. All concerned agencies were informed well in advance on the drill," a Reliance official said.

Requesting anonymity, the official said two May Day calls were made between 20:32 hours and 20:38 hours and these were meant for the internal broadcast on the aircraft's public address system.

"But as the pilot missed switching off the main radio frequency, the transmission reached the Air Traffic Control's systems."

As officials at the air traffic control explained to IANS, one broadcast to the Surface Movement Control Unit of the Mumbai ATC said the engine of a Delhi-Lahore-Muscat flight had caught fire on flight and was going down.

The second second distress call, six minutes later, again said its engine had caught fire and also that it was going into the Arabian Sea.

Panic-stricken officials at the air traffic control made frantic efforts to locate the aircraft. They finally discovered it was parked at the hangar and later learnt that it was undertaking a mock safety drill.

From the aircraft registration number they learnt that it belonged to a company run by industrialist Mukesh Ambani, but were relieved it was false alarm. But it took two hours before all aspects of the drill were checked and the officials could breathe easy.

The Rs.2.45 billion Airbus A-319 was bought in November 2007 and called a "Palace in the Sky". Its delivery had coincided with Mukesh Ambani's wife Nita Ambani's birthday.