Near-miss at Luton Airport when air traffic controller makes mistake

A mistake by an air traffic controller put a passenger plane on a collision course with another aircraft, an official near-miss report has said.

Luton Airport Tower Image by David Precious / CC BY 2.0

The controller thought an Airbus A319 leaving Luton Airport was on one departure routing when it was on a different one.

When the A319 was given an instruction to climb to 5,000ft it “brought the aircraft into confliction” with another A319 which was on a positioning flight from Stansted to Luton with no passengers aboard.

Describing the incident which took place three miles from Luton Airport on September 12 last year, the UK Airprox (aircraft proximity) Board said that when the controller “realised his mistake” he gave avoiding-action instructions to both aircraft.

The minimum separation between the two planes was 3.5 nautical miles (just over four miles) horizontally and 100ft vertically.

As is usual in such reports, the board did not give details of which airlines were involved.

In another report, the Airprox Board gavee details of how a high workload and a control room distraction had led to a Liverpool air traffic controller allowing a PA28 light aircraft to fly into conflict with a Boeing 737.

The incident happened on September 21 last year as the Boeing 737 was on its final approach to Liverpool airport.

The report said both pilots had taken action to avoid a collision and at the closest point of approach the two aircraft were separated by 600ft vertically and 0.3 nautical miles (just over one third of a mile) horizontally.

The board went on: “It was considered that it had been fortuitous that the PA28 pilot had sighted the B737 when he did, and that the B737 pilot had been given just enough time to assimilate the traffic information and react quickly.”

(Press Association)