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Jet flight out of contact for 30 mins, causes panic, 2 pilots grounded (India)


A Jet Airways flight from London to Mumbai sparked panic after the aircraft remained out of contact for almost 30 minutes while it was flying over German airspace, barely five days after the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines flight last month.

Both the pilots who operated the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on Flight 9W-117 registered as VT-JEG were grounded after the incident on March 13 which was being construed as serious, official sources said today.

The number of passengers on board the aircraft was not known but it has a seating capacity of 312 passengers.

The sources said a probe by Indian aviation regulator DGCA found that the pilots overlooked increasing the speaker volume after removing the headsets resulting in a break in communication for almost 30 minutes. The pilots in their official deposition said they had removed their headsets.

Both pilots of were taken off the roster for two weeks during the investigations into the "serious" incident, the sources said.

The incident created a panic situation for German air traffic control DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH which later shot off a complaint to Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA). Simultaneously, Jet Airways' Permanent Inquiry Board also inquired into the incident.