Tunis A320 at Frankfurt on Sep 15th 2018, nearly landed on taxiway

Last Update: October 5, 2018 / 09:50:14 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Tunisair TS-IMG, Airbus A320 — Tunisair TS-IMG, Airbus A320 (Photo credit: FlugZüge / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Sep 15, 2018

Classification
Incident

Airline
Tunisair

Flight number
TU-744

Departure
Tunis, Tunisia

Destination
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Aircraft Registration
TS-IMG

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

Airport
Frankfurt am Main International Airport, Frankfurt-am-Main

Airport ICAO Code
EDDF

A Tunisair Airbus A320-200, registration TS-IMG performing flight TU-744 from Tunis (Tunisia) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), was on approach to Frankfurt's runway 25L when a swing over to runway 25C was offered and accepted. The crew however aligned with taxiway M - the parallel taxiway between runways 25L and 25C - and continued the approach until about 200 feet AGL, then went around at about 11:22L (09:22Z). The aircraft positioned for another approach to runway 25C and landed safely about 15 minutes later.

On Oct 4th 2018 Germany's DFS (ATC provider) confirmed the incident on Sep 15th 2018, however, advised they were short on staff (Wednesday Oct 3rd was a holiday in Germany) and asked to wait for further details until the following week, e.g. whether the taxiway was occupied at the time of the occurrence or whether ATC instructed a go around or the crew initiated the go around.

On Oct 5th 2018 Germany's BFU reported that they did receive a notification of such an occurrence on Sep 15th 2018. After review of radar data, radio recordings and weather data the BFU did not rate the occurrence a serious incident, hence no investigation was opened.

On Oct 1st 2018 The Aviation Herald was notified about an occurrence by a Tunisia registered aircraft some time in the last 2 weeks, that had nearly landed on taxiway M following a swing over. As result all swing over operations in Frankfurt were suspended.

With that information The Aviation Herald performed an analysis of all radar data recognizing the word "nearly" (in nearly landed on taxiway M) permitted such an analysis in a timely manner. While scanning back from September 30th we found no such go around until September 15th 2018. Analysis of that flight track revealed the position data off the transponder showed a significant map shift, according to the position data the terminal buildings of Frankfurt had been removed by the landing aircraft. We therefore assumed the aircraft had landed on runway 25C (as the terminal buildings are still there) on their second approach. The first approach showed the aircraft tracking 280 meters to the left of that landing (the position data thus suggesting the aircraft approached the apron just before the terminals) until the aircraft went around from about 200 feet. The distance between center line of taxiway M to the runway center line 25C is 280 meters. We updated our inquiry to the DFS with these analysis data on Oct 3rd 2018 (which we believe permitted the quick note by the DFS today - Oct 4th - following a quick check of the Frankfurt tower log for a first verification).

Metars:
EDDF 151050Z 24010KT 210V270 CAVOK 20/05 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 151020Z 23007KT 180V300 CAVOK 20/06 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 150950Z 27008KT 210V300 9999 FEW046 19/06 Q1025 NOSIG=
EDDF 150920Z 23005KT 190V290 9999 FEW044 19/07 Q1025 NOSIG=
EDDF 150850Z VRB04KT 9999 FEW037 18/08 Q1025 NOSIG=
EDDF 150820Z VRB03KT 9999 FEW034 17/09 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 150750Z 22005KT 190V260 CAVOK 17/08 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 150720Z 21004KT 170V260 9999 FEW030 16/08 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 150650Z 23004KT 200V270 9999 FEW023 15/08 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 150620Z 24003KT 210V280 9999 FEW020 13/08 Q1024 NOSIG=
EDDF 150550Z 22003KT 170V240 9999 FEW020 SCT065 11/07 Q1023 NOSIG=
EDDF 150520Z 19002KT CAVOK 10/06 Q1023 NOSIG=
EDDF 150450Z VRB03KT CAVOK 11/07 Q1023 NOSIG=