Satellite-based communication prevented the "incommunicado" Jet Airways Mumbai-London flight with 330 passengers on board from getting into more trouble over German skies when it was intercepted by fighter jets+ last Thursday for not responding to air traffic control (ATC) calls. In fact, 'alert' crew of another Jet flight just ahead of this one came to the rescue of the out-of-reach crew of the flight from Mumbai (9W118).

The German ATC contacted a Delhi-London flight of Jet Airways (9W122), which was flying ahead of 9W118 last Thursday (Feb. 16). The crew of the flight from Delhi contacted Jet Airways' flight operations in India which then used the aircraft communication and addressing system (ACARS) or a satellite phone to contact the pilots of 9W118. Once alerted by this satellite-based communication, the Mumbai-London crew spoke to the ATC following which fighter jets flew away and the plane continued its flight to London.

Sources say that one of the pilots of 9W118 was reportedly taking "controlled rest" -- sleeping, something allowed by regulatory agencies -- and the other had tuned into a wrong frequency, apart from which, his headset volume was low. Due to this, the other pilot could not be reached by the German ATC -- due to wrong frequency. Neither could he be contacted on the universal emergency frequency of 121.5 MHz -- with his headset at low volume.

When reached for comment, a Jet Airways spokesperson said: "This 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 DGCA could not be reached to ascertain if the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder was downloaded when it reached London. The exact reason why this scare was caused will be known after the probe.

Jet's Mumbai-London flight reportedly remained incommunicado for almost 33 minutes -- during which it would have flown almost 500 km -- and the issue began when it was over Czech airspace. While flying from Bratislava to Prague, 9W118 was on correct frequency as it transmitted and acknowledged messages from the ATC. After that, the crew allegedly switched over to 132.980MHz and did not monitor the emergency frequency.

When it got incommunicado while over Czech Republic and about to enter Germany, the Prague ATC spotted that 9W122 (Delhi-London) was ahead of the flight from Mumbai. Prague then asked the Rhein ATC (in Germany) to contact the flight from Delhi. (These London-bound planes from India were flying over Czech Republic, among other countries in EU, before entering Germany and then Belgium/Netherland on their way to UK).

The Rhein ATC then used ACARS to get in touch with the flight from Delhi. By this time fighter jets had been scrambled for 9W118. Finally by the time the flight from Mumbai contacted the ATC, it had entered German airspace and contacted Rhein ATC.

The CVR of the Mumbai-London flight will have details of what exactly happened during the 33 minutes. DGCA officials could not be contacted to find if that was done.

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