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Mangalore midair Coroner inquest update?? - 

Via the SMH:

Inquest probes why no safety alert was sent to pilots before planes collided

Erin Pearson
March 25, 2024 — 5.50pm

In the two minutes before two small aircraft collided midair in the first crash of its kind in Victoria, an air traffic controller monitoring the airspace received two alerts about their trajectories.

Each time, he silenced the alert.


The aftermath of the fatal collision between two planes in Mangalore in February 2020.

At the time, proximity alerts – activated when planes are forecast to come within a certain distance of each other – were a frequent occurrence in the busy non-controlled airspace near Mangalore Airport in central Victoria.

Air traffic controller John Tucker said the alerts were so common that he believed more than half were false or nuisance alerts, and that it was common practice for staff to silence the sounds.

But less than a minute after he silenced the second alert, two training flights collided eight kilometres south of Mangalore Airport.

Pilots Ido Segev, 30, Peter Phillips, 47, Christiaan Gobel, 79, and Pasinee Meeseang, 27, were killed in the collision at 11.24am on February 19, 2020.

It was the first midair collision between civil aircraft operating under the instrument flight rules and procedures – where pilots cannot rely on visual cues – in a non-controlled airspace, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

On Monday, Tucker, employed by Air Services Australia, told the first day of the inquest into the deaths that he believed warning alerts he was getting about the two aircraft in the minutes before they crashed were nuisance alerts that didn’t require a response.

He told the Coroners Court he had alerted each aircraft about the other after Meeseang signalled that she and Gobel were about to take off from Mangalore Airport as Segev and Phillips approached.

Tucker said the rules stated it was up to the two planes to communicate with each other to maintain a safe passover.



But the inquest heard both planes continued on their trajectories: Gobel and Meeseang ascended as Segev and Phillips descended.

The pilots’ final radio transmissions were played to the inquest as family members sat in court.

Tucker, an experienced air traffic controller who oversaw the airspace above Mangalore on the day, said by the time the final warning siren rang out in his office, it was too late to issue a safety alert as he believed it would only distract the pilots.

In his statement, he said he believed both aircraft had levelled off about 1000 feet (about 300 metres) apart and there was no risk of collision.

Soon after, Tucker said he noticed both aircraft had disappeared off his screen, and when he tried to contact them, there was no response.

On Monday, he acknowledged a post-incident report which suggested both aircraft were continuously climbing and descending in the minutes before the fatal crash.

“I made a judgment call which was not to issue a safety alert. At the same time I had to deal with other traffic at Wangaratta,” Tucker said.

“I expected the pair to be talking to each other.”


Air traffic controller John Tucker (right) outside the Coroners Court on Monday.CREDIT:CHRIS HOPKINS.

The coroner is investigating what led to the midair collision, who had what responsibilities on the day and whether collision warning technology should be mandated, among other things.

Outside the court, Segev’s fiancee, Brianna Sutcliffe, said the pair planned to marry in 2020 and have a family together. She vowed to fight for transparency about what happened given little is known about why the crash occurred.

“The extent of pain and suffering this has caused myself and Ido’s family is insurmountable and enduring. Not a moment goes by where I am not consumed by the traumatic events that surround his passing,” Sutcliffe said.


Brianna Sutcliffe, the fiancee of pilot Ido Segev.CREDIT:CHRIS HOPKINS

“Ido would have done anything for me, and now it is my turn to repay the favour. I will not rest until I receive transparency regarding the events surrounding the loss of my soulmate, Ido.”

Court documents released to the media show Meeseang was a Thai national who was in Australia to train as a commercial airline pilot. She was due to complete her instrument rating training on the day of the collision.

Phillips was the chief pilot at the Peninsula Aero Club.

The inquest continues.

MTF...P2