The Department of Civil Aviation will issue an official warning to One-Two-Go Airlines, requiring its pilots to strictly follow safety standards after an investigation indicated one of its pilots may have failed to do so in a near miss with a Nok Air plane last December.
Wuthichai Singhamanee, deputy director-general of the department in charge of air investigation, said yesterday his team had already concluded its investigation into the near miss between the One-Two-Go and Nok Air planes. The two budget airlines' planes were flying in opposite directions between Bangkok and the North on Dec 15 last year. It put the blame on One-Two-Go.
According to Mr Wuthichai, the One-Two-Go plane _ flight OG 8104 from Bangkok to Chiang Mai _ had its autopilot system disengaged. It suddenly descended and its pilot tried to raise it. While the pilot was trying to gain altitude, the plane was heading for a mid-air collision with the Nok Air plane, flight DD 8715 from Chiang Rai to Bangkok.
The Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TACS) alarms on both planes sounded when they were one kilometre apart over Takhli district in Nakhon Sawan province. However, the pilots of both planes avoided colliding as they were about 300 metres apart in altitude.
Mr Wuthichai said that under aviation safety standards when an autopilot was disengaged the pilot had to turn his plane either left or right by 45 degrees to leave his flight route.
The One-Two-Go pilot failed to follow this procedure, while air traffic controllers also failed to monitor the situation or give instructions. The pilot did not report the incident to air traffic controllers, which is compulsory.
''Therefore, the department needed to give the airline a warning, telling it to have its pilots strictly follow standard practices,'' Mr Wuthichai said.
Source: BangkokPost
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/26Apr2008_news02.php
I am sure there must be a misunderstanding or mistranslation in the above : the 45 degree turn statement doesn't sound right.