DGCA orders inquiry into landing and take-off within one minute

Thiruvananthapuram: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered an inquiry into the Friday’s incident in which an Emirates flight-bound for Dubai took off and SriLankan Airlines flight from Colombo landed in the same runway of Thiruvananthapuram international airport within one minute.
The Air Traffic Controller who was on duty at the time had been grounded with immediate effect and the Air Safety Officer from Chennai will be reaching Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday to hold an inquiry into the incident, the DGCA, E. K. Bharat Bhushan told The Hindu.
The Emirates flight EK 521 with 241 passengers took off from the runway 32 at 11.10 a.m. as scheduled to Dubai. The SriLankan Airlines flight UL 161 with 154 passengers from the island nation’s capital landed in the same runway at 11.11 a.m., airport sources said. The flight from Colombo was scheduled to land here at 8.30 a.m. and return at 9.30 a.m.
“It is not an air miss as reported in some quarters. We are looking into whether the distance of two to four nautical miles specified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had been maintained while the landing and the take-off took place in Thiruvananthapuram”, Mr. Bhushan said. Only an inquiry and analysis of the recorded communication that took place between the ATC and the commanders of the two Emirates and SriLankan will reveal it.
09/12/11 S. Anil Radhakrishnan/The Hindu

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Categories: airports Dec 2011, Foreign Dec 2011, Safety Dec 2011