MNG A333 and Silk Way B772 at Hong Kong on Feb 27th 2025, loss of separation on departure

Last Update: April 6, 2025 / 17:26:41 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 27, 2025

Classification
Incident

Airline
MNG Airlines

Flight number
MB-380

Departure
Hong Kong, China

Destination
Istanbul, Turkey

Aircraft Registration
TC-MCN

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300

ICAO Type Designator
A333

A MNG Airlines Airbus A330-300 freighter, registration TC-MCN performing flight MB-380 from Hong Kong (China) to Istanbul (Turkey) with 5 crew, was climbing through about 2500 feet out of Hong Kong's runway 07C about to turn right onto departure route.

A Silk Way Airlines Boeing 777-200 freighter, registration VP-BMU performing flight 7L-625 from Hong Kong (China) to Baku (Azerbaijan) with 5 crew, was climbing through 2500 feet out of Hong Kong's runway 07R about to turn right onto departure route. The crew received a TCAS resolution advisory to descend.

According to ADS-B data the separation between the aircraft reduced to 0 feet vertical and about 800 meters/0.45nm horizontal at 23:02:06Z.

After the conflict was resolved both aircraft continued their climbs and flights to destination without further incident.

Hong Kong's CAD opened an investigation into the occurrence stating the aircraft had been cleared to 5000 respective 3000 feet, however, due to the climb rates differing from what ATC anticipated the desired vertical separation was not achieved. While following their standard departure routes both aircraft were visual with each other. About 7nm after takeoff the crew of the Boeing 777 received a TCAS resolution advisory to descend.

On Apr 6th 2025 Hong Kong's CAD released their preliminary report summarizing the sequence of events (Aircraft 1 being TC-MCN and Aircraft 2 being VP-BMU):

At 06:59:09, Aircraft 1 was cleared for takeoff from Runway (RWY) 07C (on the Centre Runway) on Standard Instrument Departure (SID) BEKOL 1Y. The Centre Runway was under the control of the Air Movement Controller (AMM) in the North Control Tower.

At 06:59:22, Aircraft 2 was cleared for takeoff from RWY 07R (on the South Runway) on SID BEKOL 1X. The South Runway was under the control of the Air Movement Controller (AMS) in the South Control Tower. At that moment, Aircraft 1 was commencing takeoff from RWY 07C.

As the departure tracks of Aircraft 1 (on SID BEKOL 1Y) and Aircraft 2 (on SID BEKOL 1X) were converging tracks, Air Traffic Control (ATC) procedures for dependent departure operations 1 was applicable. In this case, the requirement was for ATC to provide a 3-minute (180-second) minimum separation between a RWY 07R departure (i.e. Aircraft 2) following a RWY 07C departure (i.e. Aircraft 1). The data indicated the two aircraft concerned were cleared for takeoff only 13 seconds apart.

At 06:59:57, on noticing the occurrence of the incident, the Aerodrome Supervisor of the South Control Tower (S-ASU), called the Aerodrome Supervisor of the North Control Tower (N-ASU) to coordinate remedial actions. The agreement was to instruct Aircraft 1 to expedite its climb to 5,000 feet (ft) and to restrict the climb limit of Aircraft 2 to 3,000 ft. The two aircraft involved were given the respective ATC instructions accordingly. Both aircraft were provided with traffic information and both aircraft reported visual contact with the other aircraft at the time.

At 07:01:48, the Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA) 2 on the Air Traffic Management System (ATMS) issued an alarm to alert ATC of the traffic conflict between Aircraft 1 and Aircraft 2.

Shortly after the STCA, at 07:02:07, Aircraft 2 advised ATC (AMS) that the onboard Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) issued a Resolution Advisory (RA) to descend from 3,000 ft, which Aircraft 2 followed.

Aircraft 1 received an ACAS Traffic Advisory (TA) alert when climbing through 2,500 ft. As it was an advisory alert, Aircraft 1 continued with the ATC instruction received.

Based on preliminary data on hand, the closest spacing between the two aircraft was approximately 0.4 NM horizontally and 100 ft vertically, with the aircraft on converging headings.

At 07:02:37, Aircraft 1 was climbing through 3,500 ft while Aircraft 2 was descending through 2,500 ft, a vertical separation of 1,000 ft between the two aircraft was re-established.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 27, 2025

Classification
Incident

Airline
MNG Airlines

Flight number
MB-380

Departure
Hong Kong, China

Destination
Istanbul, Turkey

Aircraft Registration
TC-MCN

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300

ICAO Type Designator
A333

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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