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B747 first officer reports being assigned 8900 meters by chinese ATC. The fom and an ICAO conversion chart show a 100 foot difference in the meters to feet conversion and the crew choses 29;200 feet. The controller becomes agitated indicating the flight is 100 meters off the assigned altitude and issues a vector.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1232308 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201501 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | FO |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B747 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Climb |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Altitude |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | First Officer Pilot Not Flying |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 165 Flight Crew Total 11579 Flight Crew Type 709 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown |
Narrative:
We were cleared to climb and maintain 8900 meters. Captain set 29;100 feet and; backing him up; I looked up the tables/codes/signals page in the fom and said it should be 29;200 feet. The flying first officer (first officer) said that number seemed to be more accurate as the meters readout showed 8890 with 29;200 set. I then went on break after we passed 18;000 feet. When I got up from my rest break; the captain informed me that the chinese controller got excited and said our altitude was off by 100 feet and issued a directive to turn immediately to avoid traffic. Captain said conversion chart he was using came from the ICAO conversion chart. Several questions come to my mind concerning this incident. First; and foremost; why is there a difference between the ICAO chart and our fom conversion chart? Second; why did the chinese controller get excited over a 100 feet altitude difference when we have 1000 feet of separation in rvsm airspace? Again; I was in the bunk room during the actual time in question so I can only reflect on the facts as they were relayed to me by the captain.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B747 First Officer reports being assigned 8900 meters by Chinese ATC. The FOM and an ICAO conversion chart show a 100 foot difference in the meters to feet conversion and the crew choses 29;200 feet. The Controller becomes agitated indicating the flight is 100 meters off the assigned altitude and issues a vector.
Narrative: We were cleared to climb and maintain 8900 meters. Captain set 29;100 feet and; backing him up; I looked up the Tables/Codes/Signals page in the FOM and said it should be 29;200 feet. The flying first officer (F/O) said that number seemed to be more accurate as the meters readout showed 8890 with 29;200 set. I then went on break after we passed 18;000 feet. When I got up from my rest break; the Captain informed me that the Chinese controller got excited and said our altitude was off by 100 feet and issued a directive to turn immediately to avoid traffic. Captain said conversion chart he was using came from the ICAO conversion chart. Several questions come to my mind concerning this incident. First; and foremost; why is there a difference between the ICAO chart and our FOM conversion chart? Second; why did the Chinese controller get excited over a 100 feet altitude difference when we have 1000 feet of separation in RVSM airspace? Again; I was in the bunk room during the actual time in question so I can only reflect on the facts as they were relayed to me by the Captain.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.