G'day all,
Just got this off the news.com.au website:
"An angry airline boss last night demanded an investigation into how two light planes came within about 30m of crashing into each other at Darwin airport.
Hardy Aviation owner John Hardy said the near miss was probably caused because the airport was used as a training ground for air traffic controllers.
He said a supervisor should have taken over as soon it was realised there was a problem.
Pilot Martin Earle was bringing two passengers back from Maningrida in Arnhem Land when he received ``confused'' instructions from the control tower on Friday afternoon.
The Baron Beechcraft had just touched down when it was ordered to take off again.
``We were still on the runway and travelling at a bit of speed,'' said one of the passengers.
``The pilot took off but we were up for less than a minute when we were told to land again.''
As the twin-engine aircraft landed on the main runway another light aircraft flew over it from behind.
``It was very close _ about 100 feet away,'' the passenger said. ``We weren't far away from a collision.
``We don't know where the other aircraft had come from.
``There seemed to be total confusion.
``The control tower obviously made a serious mistake.''
He said Mr Earle was ``very annoyed'' by the incident.
``The pilot did everything correctly and was upset by the incident,'' he said.
The RAAF was last night still investigating the incident. "
Northern Territory News
Anyone know anything about it? Sounds like a few missing details. I liked the bit about Darwin being a training ground for ATC - no other airports around Australia have trainees do they?
Cheers all,
NFR.