Lufthansa A346 at Cali on Nov 17th 2018, language barrier with ATC
Last Update: November 19, 2018 / 23:40:07 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Nov 17, 2018
Classification
Incident
Airline
Lufthansa
Flight number
LH-542
Departure
Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Destination
Bogota, Colombia
Aircraft Registration
D-AIHC
Aircraft Type
Airbus A340-600
ICAO Type Designator
A346
An Avianca Brasil (former Oceanair still using that callsign) Airbus A330-200, registration PR-OCK performing flight O6-852 from Sao Paulo Guarulhos,SP (Brazil) to Bogota (Colombia), also diverted to Cali due to weather, the crew heard the exchange between Cali Approach and LH-542 and began to translate between Spanish and English communicating with ATC in Spanish and then relaying the communication to the A340 in (clear) English and vice versa.
Colombia's Media report that due to the language barrier separation between the two aircraft was lost resulting in a near collision, which prompted Colombia's AeroCivil (Civil Aviation Authority) to tweet that although there was a "saturation of the control frequency" and pilots detected another aircraft in close proximity, a loss of separation did not occur and operational safety was always assured. An investigation of the occurrence was nonetheless opened to establish all details and issues.
Mode-S Transponder Data show, that the Lufthansa A340-600 entered a hold near Cali at FL240 and subsequently left the hold first landing at Cali about 6 minutes ahead of the A330. The Avianca A330 entered the hold at FL270 arriving from a different direction and after the LH had entered the hold, remained at that level until the LH had descended to FL130, then began their descent and landed safely in Cali about 6 minutes past the A340. The Mode-S data do not suggest any loss of separation at any time.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Nov 17, 2018
Classification
Incident
Airline
Lufthansa
Flight number
LH-542
Departure
Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Destination
Bogota, Colombia
Aircraft Registration
D-AIHC
Aircraft Type
Airbus A340-600
ICAO Type Designator
A346
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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