Daily Express Opinion Column
Yet another plane near miss,this time involving three aircraft. There have been so many of these instances and we never seem to get to the bottom of what happened.
Our lack of information fuels suspicions about the commumication problems that appear endemic in our airline industry. The Civil Aviation Authorityhas called the near miss a low risk incident but how can this be sowhen the planes were only minutes from disaster?
The Governments partial sell-off of the National Air Traffic Services has compromised passenger safety. Britain now has the worst air traffic control in Europe, plagued by computer failures and staff shortages.
The Government, which is still the majority shareholder of Nats, must act now or sooner or later there is going to be a dreadful air
accident in Britain.
Dave
[Marquee]perfection is a state of mind[Marquee]
By: wysiwyg - 28th November 2002 at 22:33
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
The two 737’s were both BA with very similar flight numbers.
By: dcfly - 28th November 2002 at 09:31
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
……the report doesnt mention which airlines were invovled.
Dave
By: ELP - 28th November 2002 at 07:43
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
Thanks DC. Hmm. Not good at all.
By: mongu - 27th November 2002 at 22:55
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
I’m wondering why the airlines bought into NATS now! That is seen as a huge vindication of Swanwick I suppose, whatever the technical arguments.
By: dcfly - 27th November 2002 at 09:20
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 27-11-02 AT 09:22 AM (GMT)]Eric
Part of report from same newspaper:
Three planes narrowly escaped a runway pile up at Gatwick Airport, it was claimed yesterday.
Two Boeing 737s were mistakenly cleared for take-off together as a DC-10 was coming in to land on the same airstrip.
At the last minute the second 737 was ordered to stop and the DC-10 was told to abhort its landing.
The Two 737s were waiting for take-off clearance. One was given clearance but, unknown to the controller, the same order was acknowledged by the second 737.
As the planes went up to the runway, the DC-10, with its undercarriage down, was lining up to land.
At this point the pilot of the second 737 realised he was closing in on the plane in front, he queried his clearance with controller who told him to stop, let the first 737 take off and told the DC-10 to “go around”
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Who’d be held responsible if there was a pile up like this????
Dave
[Marquee]perfection is a state of mind[Marquee]
By: wysiwyg - 27th November 2002 at 08:58
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 27-11-02 AT 08:59 AM (GMT)]Did you know that all the hardware and software for Swanwick was an order for a system for the Americans but when it was completed and tested they refused to accept it as it was too deeply flawed…so they flogged it cheap to the Brits. Now so many different companies have tried to patch problems no one will guarantee it.
By: ELP - 27th November 2002 at 04:45
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
Do you have any links telling of these incidents? Are these incidents private or commercial aircraft?
By: mongu - 26th November 2002 at 23:42
RE: Act now on air safety!!!
Worst in Europe? Not hardly. The usual French strikes must have an affect on French ATC reliability, surely?
Besides, it is not correct to say that privatisation caused failures at NATS. As with the railways, the government starved NATS of funds in the knowledge that it would be soon be privatised and therefore “someone else’s problem”.
Who designed Swanwick? The government. Who awarded the contract? The government. Who decided to throw money at contractors, rather than agree a fixed fee and timescale? The government.
I am staggered by the similarities with this and the debacle in Scotland over the national assembly building in Edinburgh. The same government caused both ##### ups!
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November 26, 2002 at 10:21 pm