Qantas airline management once warned its pilots and crew of interference and GPS jamming by the warships that belong to the Chinese.
The Australian and one of the oldest airlines in operation, Qantas (QS), updated the existing flight standing order manuals. The 102-year-old carrier updated the policies and added a new section. It reads as What to do if flight crews encounter this situation.
Amid policy change, Qantas Airline informed its flight crews that it had faced such hostile situations. However, the safety of aircraft and its occupant is not yet compromised either near Australia or far away.
The order issued by QF reads as ‘Qantas Group aircraft have experienced interference on VHF from stations purporting to represent the Chinese Military… in the western Pacific and South China Sea.’
New Policy
The airline, following the Chinese threat, issued guidelines that its flight crew should follow. These are as follows:
The policy read the airline will update this in RMS in an upcoming revision and is in effect immediately.
VHS, which is an acronym for Very High-Frequency Interference, has radio waves that cover a frequency of 30 to 300MHz. It is used for various types of communications.
Qantas told its pilot could encounter such VHF Interference by Chinese military/Warships at 121.5 channel.
The safety bulletin also included the report by pilots in the Asian regions by a person claiming to be from the Chinese military.
If its pilot faces such VHF interference, it must continue to fly on there existing track. Subsequently, the pilot must report such happenings to the controlling Air Traffic Control (ATC) authority.
Also, the pilot, after landing, should submit the intelex report. The report should include the detail of such unusual activities or events that they faced during the phase of flights.
IFALPA
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) also released a statement revealing it had been “made aware of some airlines and military aircraft” being called over certain VHF (very high frequency) numbers “by military warships in the Pacific region, notably South China Sea, Philippine Sea, East of Indian Ocean.”
The statement reported as “IFALPA is engaging with the International Air Transport Association and Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) to ensure that all parties are aligned with our procedures and to prevent this from occurring in the future.”
The international body also requested the pilot not to respond to such unusual interferences and report this to the control authority without any delays.
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