Continental flight with fighter escort?
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Continental flight with fighter escort?
It would appear that a Continental flight has, this morning, been escorted through the London area by a pair of RAF fighter aircraft. ATC had been calling them for around 200 miles without response and were only called by the crew after the Military aircraft arrived on station.. .. .In these uncomfortable and still uncertain days I find it amazing that 200 miles worth of nothing heard from ATC wouldn't trigger a few questions among the crew.. .. .Or am I being overly cautious/naive?. .Or could a fault condition have led to their silence?. .. .I don't want to [nor, as a mere passenger, do I have the right to] point fingers unneccesarily but it seems a little odd and God only knows what the passengers thought of it all.
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>>In these uncomfortable and still uncertain days I find it amazing that 200 miles worth of nothing heard from ATC wouldn't trigger a few questions among the crew.<<. .. .Well, quite possibly they missed a frequency change, had the second VHF tuned to ATIS and were hearing ATC but on the wrong frequency. I've never done that myself, of course <g>...
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The ATC conversation was before 10:00 UTC this morning on 127.425, COA** routeing from Mainland Europe to Newark hadn't spoken to London for 200 miles, right over the top of London, I think the aircraft was west of Compton at the time.. .. .It did happen!. .. .I have removed true time, callsign and point of departure to protect the staff involved who will still be in the air.
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It was indeed true. Suffice to say I have close knowledge of the incident. There was no frequency change, since it had been climbed to its cruising level on first contact with London and thereafter failed to respond to any calls. The military aircraft happened to be in the area and were vectored to intercept. Shortly after they had formated on him the civil pilot piped up on a different frequency to that on which he had been lost asking what to do!. .. .He reported that he HAD been maintaining a listening watch, but ALL efforts to contact him by ALL communication methods had failed before the military aircraft were sent to see what was going on. He suspected a problem with his own equipment.. .. .Two points spring to mind:. .. .1) In some of the busiest airspace in the world on a weekday morning it surely should raise a few questions on the flight deck if nothing is heard for more than a few minutes. Indeed, I get many radio checks from pilots at the quieter times of day. Surely if you have heard nothing for a while then you should start checking your radios and making an R/T check call. To go the best part of 200 miles without anything seems very unaware.. .. .2) What must the pax have thought when they saw two military aircraft formate on their aircraft with, one would imagine, nothing having been said from the flight deck? One can only imagine what they feared might be happening behind the (locked) flight deck door.. .. .Anyway, it was all resolved without further incident and I'm sure the two military pilots will have a tale to tell in the crewroom this evening. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" />
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Not an uncommon occurence unfortunately - even post 11 September! Only a few weeks ago I remember a British carrier went "quiet" for a good couple hundred of miles - no one able to raise them - until they reached TOD and called in (on the correct frequency) for descent! This was during a busy daytime period too. Not good airmanship especially during these uncertain times.
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Sobelena. .. .There is a currently a known problem with some aircraft radios which seem to go to sleep! The frequency will be correct but after a while no radio calls will be heard. The radio wakes up and becomes active again once the Tx switch is pressed. The problem is under investigation, but currently no common factor (region, frequency, etc)has been found.. .. .The only solutions so far is to blip the Tx if you think it has gone too quiet! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> . .. .The other aspect is that in these troubled times some people are not listening out on 121.5; surely that would have quickly solved todays little drama.
Controversial, moi?
I can confirm that it is a known problem on the 757. Much work is being undertaken but the problem, while not frequent, is proving elusive.. .. .I can only speak for one operator.. . . . <small>[ 08 March 2002, 23:08: Message edited by: M.Mouse ]</small>
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A and C. .. .Sorry cannot be specific about make or brand of radio, but I know from my own experiance and from filled safety reports that it has affected 757s, 767s, and A319s. As M.Mouse states The defect is very elusive, the only common factor is the incidents started when the radio boxes capable of using the 8.33MHz(?) frequency split were installed.
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Thunderbug and M Mouse,. .. .am I right in thinking that simply by operating the transmit side of the radio you can make the receiver wake up?. .. .Also, are the radios on the aircraft types that you mentioned all from the same manufacturer?. .. .It seems odd that a fault like this has gone unchecked for any period of time. Communications are such an essential part of the operation that I would have hoped that a manufacturer would leap on this and come up with a cure as soon as possible.
