Sleeping Jet Airways Pilot And A Co-Pilot Tuned In To Wrong Frequency Created Scare

After a Jet-Airways flight from Mumbai to London did not respond to satellite communication while over German skies and had to be intercepted by fighter jets, a report says that while one pilot was (sort of) sleeping, the other had tuned into the wrong frequency.

A report in The Times Of India mentions that Flight 9W 118, bound from Mumbai to London was ‘rescued’ when the German Air-Traffic-Control contacted another Jet-Airways flight which was on its way to London from Delhi and was slightly ahead of 9W 118. The crew of the other Jet Airways flight is then said to have contacted their operatives in India who got in touch with 9W 118 via satellite phone. It is then that the German ATC backed off. The flight then resumed course to London.

The flight reportedly had 300 people on board and sources told TOI that one of the pilots had been in a state of “controlled rest” (read: sleeping) while the other had tuned into another frequency and had kept his headset-volume low. The headset at the wrong frequency did not allow the Germans to get in touch while the universal emergency frequency of 121.5 MHz did not help because of the low volume.

The newspaper quotes an official at the airlines saying that the “issue is being probed by the airline and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. At this stage we will not be able to say anything else”. The report adds that the DGCA could not be reached and the exact causes will be ascertained then.

The flight is said to have gone incommunicado after it entered Czech airspace and was about to enter Germany. Unwitting passengers may not have even guessed why the 33 minute delay happened.