Airport officials lose licenses after near miss
Print Edition
THE licenses of two air traffic controllers were revoked and 13 air traffic control officials were punished for a near miss at Hongqiao airport last week, China’s civil aviation authority said yesterday.
A China Eastern Airlines passenger aircraft nearly crashed into another plane, owned by the same carrier, during its takeoff on last Tuesday.
He Chao, the captain of the China Eastern’s A320 aircraft, was granted a “first-class merit,” along with other rewards because he successfully defused the crisis, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced on its official website.
“The air traffic controllers on the control tower were to blame for the ‘serious accident symptoms,’ who forgot the planes’ movements and gave wrong orders to the pilots,” the administration said.
The licenses of the controllers, who were manning the commanding and monitoring seats, were revoked — in one of the cases for life. The controller in the commanding seat was banned from ever undertaking any air traffic control jobs, the administration said.
Thirteen officials with the East China Air Traffic Management Bureau as well as the bureau’s air traffic control center and safety management department were either given Party warnings, serious warnings, had demerits recorded or faced losing their positions, the administration added.
The Airbus 320 Flight MU5643 to Tianjin was taking off around noon last Tuesday when an Airbus 330 from Beijing that had just landed began taxiing across the same runway.
The A320 pilot opted to continue taking off as the speed of his aircraft had reached more than 240 kilometers per hour.
His plane safely flew over the A330. The two aircraft were only 19 meters away from each other when the A320 flew over the taxiing A330, according to a reported investigation outcome from the administration.
It said the air traffic controllers gave the wrong orders to the pilot of A330 to taxi into the same runway where the A320 was taking off.
According to a detailed operation record, the A320 moved out from the boarding bridge at 11:54am and entered 36L runway at 12:03am following orders from the air traffic control tower. The controller then gave permission to take off a minute later, and the aircraft began its maneuvering.
The A320 captain and copilot spotted the A330 was about to taxi across the runway when their aircraft’s speed had reached about 200 kilometers per hour. The copilot of A320 initially braked before the captain took over the controls and triggered maximum acceleration to fly over the A330.
China Eastern Airlines said it would also reward He for his resolute reaction that had prevented a tragic plane crash.
It is estimated that more than 350 passengers and crew were onboard the two aircraft.
The administration told the leadership of the air traffic management bureau to plug the loopholes that had been exposed by the incident. The leadership should take responsibilities to ensure the flying safety and avoid any safety risks from recurring, the administration said.
“The civil aviation work must take ‘zero tolerance’ to any safety risk,” it added.
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