On the Airbands

1. “United 232”, a DC-10, in Sioux City, Iowa, when part of the tail broke away after an explosion, and control of the aeroplane could only be attained by juggling the thrust of the two wing mounted engines. Many died, but a large number also survived, when the plane’s wing clipped the ground during the emergency landing and the aircraft broke up.
2. Two PanAm 747s, one of them callsigned “Clipper 8113”, east of Miami, Florida, who were head to head at FL 370, and only missed each other because of “decisive action” by both pilots.
3. The Federal Express cargo flight, “Express 705”, where the jump seat supernumerary crew member suddenly got to his feet and attacked the flight crew with a claw hammer, resulting in an amazing chain of events unfolding. The crew kept their attacker at bay by violently throwing the aircraft from side to side, and keeping him off balance. On my tape, the crew are heard screaming into the radio for vectors to an airport, and armed intervention.

With this latest incident, recounted in the letter from Garry Davey, the time is 1310 zulu on January 15, with the stricken aircraft down to one engine, with reduced power, and barely able to maintain altitude, due to weight on board. It was on heading 235 degrees at 90 knots (167kmh) groundspeed, near to Route B577. The aircraft was estimating Christmas island, it’s diversion airport, in two hours. The aeroplane didn’t make it however, and ditched in the Pacific at position 03 12N, 154 36W, at 1349 zulu, well short of the island. It had suffered no major structural damage, with only an initial slight leak, and the passengers and crew decided to remain on board, until the intake of sea water became cause for serious concern. They then launched the liferaft, and watched the old amphibian go down by the nose.

US Coast Guard Falcon aircraft callsign “Coast Guard 1601” was perhaps the most useful station assisting the Catalina as it lay “dead in the water” (DIW), whereas the ARINC operator at Honolulu, while remaining relatively calm, didn’t seem to be responding in the best way possible to the Mayday situation. The Coast Guard aircraft crew directed N5404J to leave the exit door open prior to making the water landing, as these doors are sometimes hard to open after ditching. And instructions were given on life vests and the raft carried on board, and their best use, and the manual activation of the ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter). Several airliners, including Polynesian 313, and Air New Zealand 2, all played vital roles in keeping N5404J’s communications lines open. There was also much talk on HF and on 121.5 guard frequency. The Coast Guard were talking to each other on 8984 kHz USB. Nadi, Honolulu, Auckland and Sydney were all getting rid of routine airline traffic to other frequencies, but Tahiti, in its inimitable style, continued yapping away in French to several aircraft within Tahiti FIR. They didn’t seem to care … or perhaps understand, that people’s lives were at stake! All in all, an exciting chain of events. But it’s so sad the old aircraft was lost. Thank God no one was injured or killed in the emergency. The crew, led by American pilot Kirk Broeder, were all rescued by the freighter Direct Kookaburra, which was en route from Auckland to San Francisco. “Coast Guard 1601” had continued to circle the raft, until the crew were rescued.

Peter Lawrence is 14 years old, and lives in Andrews, Queensland. Peter operates a handheld Realistic PRO34 scanner, and was monitoring the 1994 Gold Coast Indy Grand Prix, and the aircraft heard in the area. “Sickle 40” was a pair of US Marine Corps Hornets, and VH-TIA was a little Cessna 152. Both were operating coastal, northbound, with the 152 about 10 nautical miles (19km) out in front. All aircraft in this story were on Coolangatta Radar Advisory frequency 119.5, and the Hornets were coming up behind the little Cessna … fast!

COOLY RADAR: “Tango India Alpha, traffic in your six o’clock is Sickle 40, a pair of F/A-18 Hornets, nine miles behind you, and they’re indicating 520 knots at 1700 feet, unconfirmed. Suggest as you are at 1500 feet, you descend to 1000 feet to remain clear of the overtaking jet traffic” VH-TIA: “Tango India Alpha, say again their current altitude Cooly!” COOLY RADAR: “Now showing 1600 feet unconfirmed, and again … suggest you descend to 1000 to remain clear of them” VH-TIA: “I think that’s a damned good idea!”

I’d personally like to take time to congratulate Qantas and British Airways on their marvellous effort recently of “customer support”. A British Airways 747-436, callsign “Speedbird 12” was on climb out of Brisbane for Sydney, and after calling airborne on Qantas Brisbane frequency 131.9 MHz, the Captain advised Qantas Brisbane that one elderly male passenger had left his glasses on a seat in the Departure Lounge at Brisbane Airport. The passenger’s name and address were passed on quickly, and the glasses were found, and this was confirmed back to the aircrew of Speedbird 12. They were then posted in the mail back to the elderly gentleman’s house the next day. All I can say is: “Well done Qantas and BA!”

Noreen Stephenson from Forbes NSW apparently didn’t receive some Sydney/Harare airways charts I sent her some years ago. She has just now told me about not receiving them! I’ll try to find the most recent set for you Noreen. Noreen is currently monitoring these frequencies from her country location: 119.15, 119.85 (24 hour Volmet type broadcast), 122.75, 131.95, 133.375, 135.45, and 133.05, but she didn’t hand out much more information in her letter. At nearby Bathurst NSW, David Carroll is still monitoring Melbourne Control on 122.75, but on FM! A few weeks ago, David monitored “FALCON 67” on 118.5 talking to Sydney Control. Dave says the mike being used made the pilot’s voice sound muffled, as if he were wearing a helmet. David wants to know the aircraft type. It was an F-111C David, with formation suffixes “Cutlass”, “Sabre”, and “Scimitar”.

Garth Jenkinson from Victoria recently had the opportunity to try out the Qantas inseat video units, which he recalls that I mentioned in May 94 “On the Airbands”. Garth says the unit he was using folded out from the middle armrest, with a colour LCD (liquid crystal diode) screen of about 15 centimetres. The First Class seats now have Video Hi8 cassette players in the armrest, and the Flight Attendant provides the video cassette of your choice. Garth states that “the video units are great if you are disturbed while watching your movie, or you fall asleep and miss part of the story”. The video units can be used also to bring up the “moving map” display, whenever you want. If you’re like yours truly, you want it all the time! The only “bug” in the system is that you can’t listen to audio programmes at the same time you have the moving map display. Garth Jenkinson is very impressed with the inseat video units, and says “entertaining yourself on board an airliner is just so much easier now”.

Hans de Jong from Waitakere City in New Zealand recently bought a copy of my book “Listening In to Aircraft Radio”, and says “I find your book extremely informative”. He does, however, state that the Gliders New Zealand wide VHF frequency is now 119.9 MHz. He regularly monitors this frequency, living close to Hobsonville. Hans is a ham radio operator, callsign ZL1AAI, and operates an Icom ICR1 handheld scanner. He states that the only drawback with the ICR1 is the lack of single sideband switching, making it unsuitable for HF air monitoring.

While we’re on the subject of New Zealand, I’ll run through some frequencies which may be of general assistance to NZ monitors: AIR-TO-AIR 128.95 Remote and oceanic VHF; ALEXANDRA FIS 122.2; ARDMORE APPROACH 124.3; ARDMORE TOWER 118.1; ARDMORE ATIS 121.0; ASHBURTON FIS 120.9; AUCKLAND FIS 118.5; AUCKLAND CONTROL 126.0; AUCKLAND APPROACH 124.3; AUCKLAND TOWER 118.7; AUCKLAND GROUND 121.9; AUCKLAND ATIS 127.8; WHAKATANE FIS 125.5; WANGAREI FIS 118.1; WHENUAPAI APPROACH 124.3; WHENUAPAI PRECISION APPROACH RADAR (PAR) 125.7; WHENUAPAI TOWER 134.5; WHENUAPAI ATIS 128.3; WIGRAM FIS 120.9.

An Incident over Melbourne. Our anonymous correspondent was listening to Melbourne Control using his aging but sturdy Realistic PRO30 handheld scanner. He was comfortably seated on a friend’s balcony, complete with binoculars and a glass of fine red, enjoying the spectacle of night approaches into Tullamarine. At approximately 10pm local, two aircraft on frequency 123.6 were given instructions on their descent and approach to Tullamarine. Both aircraft were instructed to return their radios to 124.7 MHz, Melbourne Approach. The wind was strengthening from the north, so much so that Air Traffic Control decided to switch duty runways from Runway 27 to the longer Runway 34. An Alitalia 747 received instructions from ATC to track to Plenty and then to descend. A domestic jet approaching slightly north of the Alitalia path was given similar instructions, allowing sufficient separation for the smaller domestic jet to follow Alitalia in.

But something went wrong! After both aircraft acknowledged landing instructions on 124.7 Approach frequency, with the domestic jet speaking first, ATC confirmed copying him. But when it was Alitalia’s turn, all their calls from the airliner were not responded to. Three, four, five times! The reason: The microphone in the Alitalia jet was locked on! This was the net result:

1. Alitalia couldn’t understand why they received no reply from Approach Control.
2. Other aircraft couldn’t get through to Approach due to the locked on mike!
3. The Alitalia crew called repeatedly but in vain.
4. The Alitalia aircraft did not descend in normal profile.
5. Alitalia then “took an initiative” and commenced a holding pattern.
6. He turned north, into the path of the domestic jet.
7. Finally, the airwaves cleared after the mike button was reset, and Alitalia copped a blast from ATC. “Your microphone has been switched on for the past 15 minutes cutting all contact with Melbourne Approach!”

The domestic jet had to be avoided, so Alitalia was given an immediate vector out to the east, giving the domestic jet right of way. What followed, I’m told, were some of the most precise landing instructions from Ground to Air ever heard by our anonymous correspondent! Our correspondent asks: Why is there no emergency system alerting crews their radio is locked on? (This episode lasted 15 minutes!) Why do modern aircraft still use simplex transmissions? (the same frequency for transmit and receive). He probably has a point!

See you next time. “Listening In” magazine is $8.00 inc post, and “Listening In to Aircraft Radio” is $22.95 inc post. Both available from Airband Communications PO Box 16 Georges Hall 2198.