Or, with ever-increasing flight duty times, the crew may have fallen asleep. The pilots may have become incapacitated, as in the case of Helios flight 522 which crashed after the aircraft suffered a decompression which the crew did not recognise. An aircraft is flying through its airspace, unresponsive.Īt this point, it may be unclear what is actually going on in the aircraft. However, if the ATCO is ultimately unable to contact the pilots, they have a problem. If this doesn't work, ATC may ask other aircraft in the area to try and call the non-communicative aircraft on guard. The pilots of that aircraft should be listening out and hear that transmission, regaining contact with ATC in the process. If a controller loses contact with an aircraft, they are able to broadcast on guard. Pilots always listen out on 121.5 - the 'guard' frequency (Image - Charlie Page/The Points Guy) This can happen if the controllers give the pilots the wrong frequency for the next sector, if the pilots misunderstand that frequency, if the ATCO forgets to hand the aircraft over and it goes out of radio range or, in rare circumstances, if the radio on the aircraft fails. The problem comes when there is an error with the handover and the pilots end up on the wrong frequency. As aircraft move towards the edge of one sector, the ATCO will hand the pilots over to the next sector by giving them the new frequency. To enable ATCOs to control their respective sectors efficiently, each one will be assigned a particular VHF radiofrequency. ![]() To ensure flight safety, the busier the sector, the smaller the geographic area it covers. The closer to the ground you get, the higher the workload for ATCOs as they will be handing aircraft climbing and descending as they leave and arrive around the main airports. As a result, these sectors can cover a large geographic area - sometimes the size of the entire country. The uppermost areas provide a lower workload for Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) as most aircraft are just passing through. Sometimes ATC loses contact with aircraft (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) This is done not only because countries can have a large geographic area, but also because the airspace is vertical as well as lateral. ![]() In most situations, this airspace is divided up into different control areas or sectors. Each one of these countries is responsible for the airspace above it and as a result, provide an Air Traffic Service, part of which is Air Traffic Control. As worrying as this may seem, it is incredibly rare and normally down to a loss of communications with the controllers on the ground.Īs aircraft fly across the world, they cross countless different countries on their journey to their destination. Imagine enjoying the end of your inflight movie, only to look out of the window to see a Top Gun style military jet sitting just metres away from the wingtip of your aircraft. Related: Behind the scenes: What goes on in the flight deck during a diversion? Why would an airliner be intercepted? However, as alarming as the thought of a military fighter jet intercepting a civilian aircraft may seem, it is something that airline pilots are trained to deal with. ![]() As of yet, the exact details of what unfolded at 39,000ft are still unclear. The aircraft was flying over northwestern Belarus, nearing the end of its scheduled flight from Athens, Greece (ATH) to Vilnius, Lithuania (VNO), when the pilots were informed by Belarussian ATC of a security threat onboard the aircraft.ĭespite being closer to Vilnius than Minsk at the time, the aircraft turned towards the capital of Belarus and landed a short time later.Īccording to certain news outlets including Reuters, during the diversion, a Mig-29 fighter aircraft from the Belarussian military was scrambled to escort the Boeing 737 as it made its way to Minsk. As I write this, the aviation world is still trying to get its head around the events which surround Ryanair flight 4978 as it was forced to divert into Minsk, Belarus (MSQ) on Sunday.
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