A Garuda flight from Bali came within 15 seconds of landing on a section of runway at Perth Airport that had been closed while workers carried out maintenance, a report by Australia’s air safety investigator has found.
A second report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found that another Garuda flight approached Perth below the published minimum safe altitude for just over a minute, and was out of contact with air traffic control for four minutes.
The reports deal with two serious incidents in May last year. The first incident occurred on May 9, and involved a Boeing 737-8CX, flight number GA 726, on a Bali-to-Perth flight with 76 passengers.
The second incident occurred on May 28, and involved a Boeing 737-5U3 operating from Jakarta to Perth, with 61 passengers.
The ATSB report said the crew used an instrument approach to runway 21 due to low cloud, rain showers and reduced visibility. Shortly after clearing the pilots to make an instrument landing, air traffic control assessed that the required separation between the Garuda flight and another aircraft ahead was inadequate and cancelled approach clearance for Garuda.
While the pilots were being instructed for the new approach, communication between the controllers and the crew was lost.
Source: The West Australian
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July 1, 2009 at 6:34 am