Planes missed each other by six minutes

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 4

Planes missed each other by six minutes

PA Wellington Civil aviation is investigating an incident over the Tasman involving two Air New Zealand airliners. The aircraft were converging on the same reporting point — 11,280 metres above the sea — but missed each other by six minutes, according to a Civil Aviation spokesman. The incident happened on Sunday. That the planes were at the same altitude was noticed only when the second aircraft radioed that it had reached the reporting point just va-

cated by the first, said the Civil Aviation assistant director for air traffic services, Mr Laurie Coker.

“From the point of air traffic control it was a technical disaster,” he said.

The circumstances leading to the incident were believed to have been caused by cumulative error by at least two Auckland oceanic air traffic controllers; Mr Coker said, “We will turn the unit upside down until we find out why the wrong altitude was written on the flight slip, and why it was not picked up.”

On Sunday, the controller’s flight slip said one of the jets was flying 600 metres lower than it really was. The second error was that a controller failed to notice the incorrect slip when the pilot reported position.

Mr Coker said the investigating team, studying voice tapes of controller and pilot conversations, would work over Christmas and was expected to report early in the New Year.

The six-minute “gap” between the airliners was well inside the minimum of 20 minutes considered safe for oceanic control, Mr Coker said.