Planes were metres from colliding at Dublin Airport

A COLLISION between two commercial aircraft was narrowly avoided at Dublin Airport last year after an alert crew noticed another plane was about to encroach onto the main runway as they were about to land.

The incident occurred on October 16 last year as a Germanwings flight from Cologne with 132 passengers and crew was approaching the runway at about 10.30am in good weather.

The crew of the German aircraft aborted the landing and operated an immediate go-round manoeuvre after they noticed a Turkish Airlines aircraft about to taxi onto the same runway.

Recordings show the pilot of the Germanwings Airbus remarking: “We’re going around, there’s (an aircraft) entering the runway.”

A report by the Air Accident Investigation Unit revealed the German aircraft was just 60m above the ground and less than 1km from its touchdown point before it climbed away.

It also revealed that the pilot of the Turkish Airlines plane, bound for Istanbul with 105 passengers and crew on board, had been instructed by air traffic controllers to hold short of the runway as the Germanwings flight had been given clearance to land.

The vertical separation of the two aircraft was just 44m and the horizontal separation was 0.65km at their closest point. When instructed to vacate the runway, the Turkish Airlines pilot replied: “Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Both airlines subsequently landed and took off respectively without further incidence.

The Turkish Airlines pilot submitted a report in which he claimed instructions in a manual about holding positions at Dublin Airport were confusing.

The AAIU report said the pilot had been distracted by cockpit tasks as he taxied towards the runway and did not correctly see and interpret the signs for holding positions.

The AAIU issued six safety recommendations relating to instructions and signage for holding positions at Dublin Airport as a result of what it classified as “a serious incident.”