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Fly On Track Radar Replay #7
Leaving the Manchester Low Level Route in the CTR

You can view a real radar replay of an infringement here if you have windows media player but before you do read the following to understand what you are seeing.

The radar replay shows the south western section of the Manchester Control Zone. Manchester Airport is using its north easterly runways (landing runway 05R and departing runway 05L). At the start of the replay Manchester Airport, the 10 mile range ring from the airport and the final approach track for runway 05R are all highlighted. At the time of this incident traffic levels were high, notice there is a continuous sequence of inbound aircraft that are being vectored for approximately 4 miles spacing on final approach also out of picture there are several aircraft at the 3 Manchester holding stacks waiting for their turn to make an approach.

The SSR label block on each aircraft shows on the top line the aircrafts 4 digit transponder code below that the aircraft's altitude and destination designator (e.g. A29 CC indicates an aircraft at an altitude of 2900ft and inbound to Manchester). Finally, the bottom line indicates an aircraft's ground speed (e.g. RG160 would indicate a ground speed of 160 knots). The replay then highlights a 7000 squawk which appears to be routing southbound and following the M6 motorway (if you get a copy of either the northern or southern England 1:500 000 Aeronautical chart you should be able to orientate the chart with the radar picture). The 7000 squawk is in the area of Stretton VRP and just about to leave the Low Level Route and enter controlled airspace.

Watch the radar replay by clicking on the button below, remembering that the air traffic controller has to consider the 7000 squawk that has entered controlled airspace without permission as unknown traffic and has to keep 5 miles radar separation between it and his own traffic, the controller did put a blind call out to the aircraft but got no reply, after viewing read the paragraph below.

The infringing aircraft was traced by tracking it on radar and actually turned out to be 3 aircraft that were flying in loose formation (only one was squawking but if you watch the replay again you can make out the primary radar returns from the other 2 aircraft). The 4 aircraft broken off approach were all delayed by 8 minutes but also 10 aircraft that were already in the holding stacks were also delayed 8 minutes. This gives a total delay for all aircraft of 2 hours and if you consider the average size of the delayed aircraft involved was a Boeing 737 (which burns around 2.5 tonnes of fuel an hour while holding) it’s a costly business.

OK, so the controllers did pretty well, keeping the impact to just time and money, not lives, but here's another learning point; If the 7000 squawk has been simply listening in to Manchester Approach on 118.575 Mhz and displaying the Manchester 'listening in' squawk of 7366, it could have been contacted as soon as it left the corridor.

This type of infringement involving traffic routing through the Low Level Route is not uncommon at Manchester (occurring about once or twice a week during the summer months) in this case it caused more disruption than normal because traffic levels were high and the easterly runways were in use. If you are routing down the Low Level Route and become unsure of your position it is best to make an immediate call on the Manchester Approach frequency for assistance, and read up and use the 'listening out' squawk for Manchester Approach - the problem could have been sorted out almost immediately before traffic needed to be diverted. See the '7366 parrot' icon on the home page of this site. And to fly the low level route and stay in it? Have a look at the LINKS tab (in yellow at the top of this page). You'll find there is a comprehensive pictorial guide to the route written by a pilot who is also a controller at Manchester- just look for the blue section on the LINKS page on this site.

Click on the image on the left to launch the radar clip. It is currently only available in 'wmv' format, therefore Windows Media Player should be used. Many thanks to all at NATS who have gone out of their way to make the public viewing of this clip possible. A different infringement and analysis will appear every few weeks - until they stop!

The latest radar replay (#7) shows an aircraft starting in the Manchester Low Level Corridor then infringing the CTR with the controllers breaking off approaches ahead of it.

The latest radar replay (#6) shows a small aircraft slowly transiting Stansted CTR.

Radar replay (#5) shows an aircraft not noticing the lowered airspace ahead near Compton VOR and breaking in at altitude.

Radar replay (#4) shows a student lost and crossing the Luton CTR and extended runway centre line.

This radar replay (#3) shows disruption caused by a short infringement into a layer of the LTMA over Sussex, eventually descending to the correct altitude but not early enough.

This radar replay (#2) shows a problem caused by a pilot NOT squawking Mode C and then getting lost eventually turning up close to the extended centreline of Stansted in the CTA. Due to the lack of Mode C the controller didn't know he was in the CTA.

The original radar replay (#1) shows the disruption caused when a pilot makes a navigation mistake and enters the Heathrow CTR and heads down towards final approach without realising it (at first!)