A Jet and A Turkish Airline Close To A Mid-air Collision Over London
Posted on 09. Sep, 2010 by Dahlia Lithwick in Business, Headlines, Technology
A Jet and A Turkish Airline Close To A Mid-air Collision Over London – A report has said that a business jet came close to a mid-air collision with a Turkish Airlines passenger plane after taking off from London City Airport.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) study described the near-miss over London as a ‘serious incident.’
The Citation 525 jet was about 100 feet to 200 feet below and half a mile away from the Boeing 777 passenger plane, heading to Heathrow with 232 people on board. In a report, the control tower at London City had cleared the German-owned business jet to climb to 3,000 feet but when the flight crew acknowledged the instruction, they said they would be climbing to 4000 feet.
According to AAIB, the controller at the tower did not notice this instruction from the plane which is a ‘readback’ mistake. Meanwhile, the Turkish flight had been cleared to descend to 4000 feet as it approached Heathrow Airport in west London.
The AAIB added, if the planes had come close during bad weather, the only barrier to a potential mid-air collision would have been built-in collision-avoidance systems as the aircraft would not have been able to see each other.
Furthermore, the report found that when the aircraft came close, the Turkish flight crew had not followed the commands of three on-board collision-avoidance warnings. The Citation jet did not even have the equipment known as TCAS II.
A pilot sitting on the observer seat of the passenger plane saw the business jet pass west of them at an estimated 100 to 200 feet below. The jet was carrying two crew members and one passenger.
A recommendation made by the AAIB that the TCAS II equipment should be made mandatory for planes flying in the London area. It has also been suggested that instructions from the control tower at London City Airport be given separately from the rest of the take-off commands and be followed by a separate response from the crew.