Jet near-miss investigated

LONDON, England -- A near-miss at the UK's Heathrow Airport in April last year has been blamed on an air traffic controller.

The incident saw a British Airways Boeing 747 on its landing approach come within about 112 feet of a British Midland Airbus A321, which was waiting to take off.

A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said a 28-year-old woman air traffic control trainee was controlling take-offs under the supervision of a mentor, who has been blamed for the incident.

The report found the crews of the planes complied with all air traffic control instructions and no criticism could be made of the trainee's performance.

But the trainee's mentor, a 35-year-old man, had allowed the situation to develop to the point where the British Airways plane could not be "safely integrated" with the departure of the British Midland plane, said the report.

The investigation revealed the mentor was involved in an incident in April 1999, in which he cleared a Boeing 757 to across the runway in front of a Boeing 747. The situation was only resolved after the pilot of the departing aircraft queried his clearance, it said.

It also found the use of strobe lights on the runway meant the Airbus plane was not as visible on the ground as it might have been.

It recommended that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should issue instructions demanding UK registered aircraft to use strobe lights, if fitted, when on an active runway in the UK.

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which provides UK air traffic control, said it "fully accepted" the "thorough" and "detailed" report, said the Press Association.

"This was a very serious and regrettable incident, from which the safety lessons have been learned and applied both systematically and individually," a spokesman told the news agency.

He described the incident as "a rare error of judgment," adding "last year, NATS handled a record two million air traffic movements and there were only six risk-bearing incidents attributable to NATS."

"However, immediately following the incident, NATS introduced a more formal system of selecting controllers for its on-the-job training programme at Heathrow and monitoring individual performance."

"NATS believes its air traffic control systems and procedures, approved by the safety regulator, are safe and its safety record among the best in the world."

The mentor had been transferred out of Heathrow Airport to work at a "less busy unit" and was also no longer involved in the training programme.

A British Midland spokeswoman said the company was "satisfied" with the report's conclusions and added: "We will continue to work closely with all regulatory bodies including NATS in order to improve the high levels of safety that are currently provided," said the Press Association.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We have cooperated fully with the AAIB which has confirmed that our crew complied with all air traffic control instructions. The AAIB incident bulletin makes no criticism of BA or its crew."