AirAsia flight loses contact with ATC, lands safely in Bengaluru: Report

An AirAsia flight lost contact with the ground staff at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport minutes before landing on Monday but finally could land safely in Bengaluru as the pilots switched to an alternative mode of communication. All passengers were unharmed.

A major crisis was averted in Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) as an AirAsia flight lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) merely minutes before landing, but established an alternative way of communication and landed safely, with all 160 passengers aboard unharmed and unaware of the incident. The incident reportedly took place on Monday.

A report by The Times of India said contact snapping at times of landing is extremely rare and pilots are provided with alternative channels for radio contact with ground staff at all times in case of such glitches.

The incident happened at around 7 pm on Monday when the flight, coming from Delhi, experienced a communication cut when it was about 16 kilometres away from the Bengaluru airport.

It is not yet known why the communication could have snapped. However, pilots took swift action by switching to the alternative channel as it was crucial for them to know the weather conditions on the ground and the wind speed before landing.

The ATC has reportedly raised an incident report and a probe has been initiated into the matter. According to reports, switching to alternative channels for radio contact with ATC in these instances of communication failure is a standard procedure and the incident cannot be termed as alarming unless this second option also fails to work.