KABUL FIR UPDATED INFORMATION – 19 EYLÜL 2021

SAFETY BULLETIN

21SAB14.7

19 September 2021

Kabul FIR Updated Information Note: This Safety Bulletin (originally published 17 August 2021) represents a rapidly changing situation, updates may be published quickly.

IFALPA has received the following information via the Kabul FIR Contingency Coordination Team (CCT)

This bulletin issued to provide an update on the ongoing contingency situation in

the Kabul FIR. Changes/updates and new information are highlighted.

Summary of changes: UPDATED: ATS in Kabul FIR

NEW: Some limited contingency procedures published in NOTAMs, availability or non-availability of aerodromes not known, Afghanistan preparing coordination with neighbouring States

NEW: Traffic observations – unknown traffic

UPDATED: Information on NOTAM sources and anomalies.

SITREP at 18 September 2021, 0700 UTC Afghanistan Points of Contact

ICAO has been informed that officials have been appointed to senior positions in the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority, and relevant Point of Contact details have been provided.

Air Traffic Services (ATS) in Kabul FIR

UPDATED: Afghanistan informed the CCT that:

• aerodrome control and associated approach control service was available at Kabul.
• Primary and Secondary Surveillance Radar was operating at Kabul, but used for advisory purposes only.
• The ILS at Kabul was operating, but the need for a flight check to validate correct operation was acknowledged. Flights operating at Kabul had been requested to monitor the ILS operation, and reported it appeared to be operating normally.

NEW: Some limited ATS may be available at other aerodromes in the Kabul FIR. Pilots should check all available sources of information, noting the caution in paragraph 26 relating to NOTAMs.

ENROUTE ATS in the Kabul FIR remains unavailable. Most flights are avoiding the

Kabul FIR.

ICAO has established contact with officials from Qatar who are coordinating assistance and advice to the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority. Qatar is conducting an assessment of capability and needs, and may provide further information as it becomes available.

A Flight Information Service is provided at Mazar-e-Sharif. The scope of this service is not known.

NEW: Availability or non-availability of ATS at other aerodromes has not been confirmed.

NEW: Some limited contingency procedures have been published in NOTAMs, however these may not yet have been fully coordinated with or agreed by neighbouring ANSPs:

• Flights inbound for landing are to be at or below FL280 within the Kabul FIR;
• Inbound flights to expect delaying action to achieve 15 minute longitudinal spacing;

NEW: Afghanistan has drafted contingency coordination Letters of Agreement, and has been provided with contact details for coordination with all neighbouring States.

NEW: Other contingency procedures such as TIBA frequencies (all traffic), contingency ATS routes (all traffic), flight level requirements for overflights and other requirements facilitating separation or collision avoidance have not yet been published.

Afghanistan has not notified ICAO of the formal activation of its ATM contingency plan. ICAO has not yet received any notification from Afghanistan or neighbouring States of the formal activation of any contingency plan.

The Kabul FIR ATM Contingency Plan may be accessed at https://acaa.gov.af/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/Afghanistan-ATM-Contingency-Plan-V2.1-APR-2021.pdf

All relevant States are urged to activate any contingency arrangements they may have relating to non-availability of ATS in the Kabul FIR.

All potentially affected States, particularly Bahrain, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and UAE, are urged to take into account the likelihood of increased non-normal traffic through your FIRs, or traffic operating on other than the usual ATS routes.

It is likely that neighbouring States especially but not limited to Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan may encounter pop-up departure traffic from OAKB at the FIR boundary. Further consideration is being given to local procedure development, subject to Afghanistan agreement to proposed contingency procedures and/or development of alternative procedures, and may be the subject of a CCT video teleconference with ANSPs of neighbouring FIRs.

ICAO has developed DRAFT NOTAMs detailing contingency procedures for overflight traffic, and for traffic arriving in, departing from or operating wholly within the Kabul FIR. The proposed contingency arrangements are based on the continued unavailability of ATS in the Kabul FIR, and the requirement for TIBA procedures.

As Points of Contact for Afghanistan CAA have now been provided, the draft NOTAMS have been forwarded to Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority for their consideration and in-principle approval.

The contingency arrangements in the draft NOTAMS will require agreement from neighbouring FIRs.

Related NOTAMs published by the above States should be coordinated with neighbouring States and published at the earliest opportunity where specific ATS routing or other requirements for contingency traffic become necessary (particularly Afghanistan-neighbour States China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), and in accordance with any established contingency plan where applicable.

Traffic Observations

Some traffic has been observed entering/leaving and operating within the Kabul FIR, both by day and by night:

• Flights observed entering and leaving the Kabul FIR to/from:
• Abu Dhabi, Islamabad, Al Udeid, Doha
• Some UN/WFP operations
• Some military transport operations (Qatar, Turkey)
• Some Domestic flights

Note 1: periodical observations made using publicly available online flight tracking services. Observation of operating traffic is dependent on the coverage of the sensors contributing to the flight tracking service, and on aircraft transponders operation. There is likely to be other traffic that is not observed.

Note 2: No information is available on procedures used by these flights for entry to/exit from or operation within the Kabul FIR.

NEW: Unknown aircraft have been observed operating on random tracks in the Kabul FIR between FL220 and FL250. These unknown aircraft have been observed on ACAS only, and have not been visually identified. No other information is available on the area of operations of these unknown aircraft, or their operating levels.

Availability of Aerodromes

NEW: Availability or non-availability of aerodromes other than Kabul has not been confirmed. NOTAMs and all other available information should be checked before operations.

NEW: ICAO has been informed that runway incursions by vehicles and persons have been observed at several aerodromes including Kabul.

UPDATED: NOTAM Kabul FIR (OAKX) indicates 24 hour prior notification is required for all flights landing at Kabul (OAKB). Email contact details are provided. NOTAMS and all other available information for other aerodromes should be checked for any prior notification requirements.

Aeronautical Information Services. UPDATED: Pakistan is kindly providing assistance to Afghanistan for NOTAM distribution. NOTAMs distributed by Pakistan are also published in the US DINS website. AFTN distribution of NOTAMs is not known.

UPDATED: Some NOTAM Office (NOF) functions of the Afghanistan AIS have been restored. Pakistan is assisting Afghanistan in distributing NOTAMS. New NOTAMs published by Kabul NOF are available on the alternate AIS webpage https://www.afgais.com.

However, all stakeholders should note that Afghanistan CAA website has two separate

NOTAM pages. At time of publication of this bulletin the page http://notam-

acaa.com/ has not been updated.

NOTAMs for Kabul FIR (OAKX), Kabul International aerodrome (OAKB) and other aerodromes, have also been published on the USA Defense Internet NOTAM Service (DINS, https://www.notams.faa.gov/dinsQueryWeb/). The DINS has now been updated with new Afghanistan NOTAMS, and the NOTAMS previously issued by military agencies prior to 31 August 2021 have been removed.

There remain a number of NOTAMs in both of the ACAA web portals, and DINS, that have passed their expiry date in Item C and therefore require either review (EST date/time in Item C) or removal (Item C time not EST).

CAUTION: ALL STAKEHOLDERS ARE URGED TO CHECK ALL AVAILABLE SOURCES

TO VERIFY NOTAM INFORMATION UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Due to changing information being published in NOTAMs but not coordinated with ICAO or the CCT, snapshots of NOTAMs are no longer attached to CCT Bulletins.

Afghanistan ATM Contingency 2021 Webpage

CCT Bulletins and other relevant ATM contingency-related information are now available on a dedicated webpage, accessible through the ICAO Asia/Pacific Regional Office website:

Regional Office website: https://www.icao.int/apac/Pages/default.aspx

Afghanistan ATM Contingency 2021 webpage: https://www.icao.int/APAC/Meetings/Pages/2021-AFGH-ATM.aspx

Distribution of CCT bulletins to all CCT participants by email will continue. Bulletins and other relevant information will be posted to the website at the earliest opportunity during business hours (Bangkok).

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