The crew of a Dublin-bound Aer Lingus flight had to take evasive action to avoid a private jet that had entered the runway while they were taking off.
The Aer Lingus pilot confirmed to air traffic controllers afterwards that they had "enough room to take a right around the traffic" following the incident at Geneva Airport in Switzerland last Friday morning.
Aer Lingus flight EI-681, an Airbus A320 jet, had been cleared for immediate take-off while a British Airways (Airbus A320) was on final approach and due to land soon afterwards.
As the Aer Lingus jet raced down the runway for take-off, a quick-thinking air traffic controller spotted a Cessna Citation jet about the enter the same runway and made a frantic radio broadcast instructing it’s crew to “hold position here”.
Air traffic control recordings confirm that the transmission was quickly followed by an instruction to the crew of the inbound British Airways flight to abort their landing.
“Speedbird 726, go around, I repeat go around, traffic has interfered on the runway,” the controller said.
When the British Airways crew acknowledged the ‘go around’ instruction, the controller informed them: “There is an Airbus A320 [Aer Lingus] which has just fortunately departed without any problems”.
The controller then called the Aer Lingus flight asking: “Are you okay.”
The Aer Lingus crew replied: “Affirm, we had enough room to take a right around the traffic but luckily we were okay yes”.
The controller said: “I am happy for you. We just saw it [Cessna] quite late but happy you are okay.”
The Aer Lingus crew told the controller they would have to make a report on the matter while the controller said she would have to also.
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman confirmed: “I can confirm that one of our aircraft was involved in an incident at Geneva on that date. We have submitted necessary reports to the relevant authorities and are awaiting feedback. At all times our crew were compliant with procedures and air traffic instructions.”
The British Airways A320 positioned for another approach and landed safely while the Aer Lingus flight continued to Dublin for a safe landing.
The Cessna jet had been taxiing from a business jet parking area through the apron when it entered the active runway. Such an incident is called a ‘runway incursion’.
It’s not clear however whether the Cessna crew had been following instructions from a controller at the time or made a wrong turn while taxiing.
The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) has confirmed it is investigating the ‘airprox’ incident which it has described as “runway incursion at intersection Zulu during take off of departing A320 on RWY 05.”
An airprox incident is where the distance between aircraft, as well as their relative positions and speed, have been such that the safety of the aircraft involved may have been compromised.