`Jet Airways plane lying from London lost contact due to frequency glitch`

New Delhi: The Jet Airways aircraft flying from London, which lost contact with the ATC over European airspace while on its way to Mumbai, was a training flight for the pilot-in-command at the time of the incident, sources said.

The incident happened on February 16 when the Mumbai- London flight 9W-118, carrying 330 passengers and 15 crew members, lost contact with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) reportedly for almost 33 minutes.

"It was a training flight for the pilot on the commander's seat when it lost contact with the ATC due to frequency goof- up. Though, the Czech aviation authorities tried contacting the pilot of the flight 9W-118 on emergency frequency, the pilot missed it due to howling noise," airline sources said.

A response from Jet Airways on the issue was awaited.

According to information, the flight remained out of touch of ATC for nearly 33 minutes when it was flying over Czech airspace. While flying from Bratislava to Prague, 9W-118 was on correct frequency (132.890MHz) as it transmitted and acknowledged the messages.ATC for nearly 33 minutes when it was flying over Czech airspace. While flying from Bratislava to Prague, 9W-118 was on correct frequency (132.890MHz) as it transmitted and acknowledged the messages.

However, the crew subsequently tuned frequency 132.980MHz and it did not monitor the emergency frequency.

The Prague centre reportedly spotted another Jet Airways aircraft, flight 9W-122 from Delhi to London Heathrow, flying under control of Rhein Control (Germany).

An Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) message was reportedly transmitted to 9W-118 asking them to contact at a particular frequency and by the time the aircraft reported at that frequency, it was already in German airspace.