Brussels A319 and Iberia A320 at Barcelona on Feb 8th 2012, loss of separation on final approach

Last Update: May 14, 2013 / 13:53:41 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 8, 2012

Classification
Incident

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

Spain's CIAIAC released their final report concluding the probable cause of the incident was:

The incident was caused by a miscalculation on the part of ATC when attempting to adjust flight paths.

The resolution of the conflict was not adequate. Once it was decided to have IBE0716 turn, this aircraft shouldn’t have been allowed to turn left without taking into account the altitudes of the aircraft or their possible converging flight paths. It would have been better handled by making IBE0716 turn right.

Also contributing to this incident were deficient ATC communications.

The CIAIAC reported that the controller had planned three aircraft in sequence, a Delta Boeing 767-300 (heavy category) was first in sequence requiring the next aircraft to remain 5nm in trail, the Iberia flight IB-716 second and the Brussels SN-3695, callsign BEL3HH, third for their approaches to runway 25R. The Brussels A319 was about 8nm behind the Boeing 767 but 30 knots faster, when the controller recognized he could not put the Iberia in between these two aircraft without violating minimum separation and instructed the Iberia to turn left with the intention to put the Iberia behind the Brussels as third in the sequence.

While the Iberia was still turning left TCAS resolution advisories activated in both the Iberia and Brussels aircraft.

The CIAIAC stated, that the controller was talking English to the Brussels aircraft, however Spanish to Iberia "for the duration of the maneouver".

The CIAIAC complained: "By the time the CIAIAC became aware of the incident, there was no possibility of retrieving any of the information on the flight recorders (FDR and CVR) from either aircraft. It was also impossible to obtain the data from the QAR on BEL3HH." and stated that the QAR data of IB-716 became available to the investigation.

The CIAIAC reported AENA, air traffic control provider, conducted their own investigation into the occurrence and concluded that it would have been better, once IB-716 was to be taken out of the planned sequence, to turn IB-716 right in order to take it away from the Brussels A319 and continued: "it was advisable to highlight during training for terminal area controllers to assign proper courses for intercepting localizers on approach and to plan potential conflict situations ahead of time so that vertical separation is maintained at all times." AENA concluded their investigation stressing "the importance of using the English language when it is spoken by any aircraft crew."

The CIAIAC analysed: "To divert IBE0716’s flight path, the controller made it turn left without taking into account the fact that this airplane was 3 NM away from the localizer and that turning would put it on an intercept course with BEL3HH. At the same time, the controller asked BEL3HH to descend to 2,300 ft and IBE0716 to maintain 4,300 ft without realizing that BEL3HH was about to reach 4,000 ft, meaning they were not only on intercept courses but they would be at the same altitude as well."
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 8, 2012

Classification
Incident

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

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