Near accident at Gardermoen
Worrying tales of safety problems at Oslo's Gardermoen International airport continued after a near collision earlier this week.
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Five close calls at Norwegian airports - 23.11.2004
Snow snarls air traffic - 17.11.2004
SAS violates safety check regulations - 11.11.2004
According to newspaper VG, two SAS planes carrying several hundred passengers were just seconds from disaster in heavy snow last Monday.
A flight bound for Copenhagen at 6:20 am was heading for the west runway for take-off. At the same time the morning arrival from Bergen was descending to land on the same runway.
The pilots on the Copenhagen flight managed to detect the problem and stopped before entering the runway. The air controller that gave the planes the all clear has been suspended according to VG, but this has not been confirmed by civil aviation administration organization Avinor.
"We have had a serious incident where Avinor has begun an internal investigation, but on principle I do not comment on any personnel issues," said Per Harald Pedersen, head of tower and approach control at Norway's major airports.
The near-accident is also being investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board.
"As long as the case is under investigation there isn't much we can say but we can confirm that two planes were very near each other. Thanks to a very good performance and vigilance by our pilots the accident was averted," said SAS information chief Siv Meisingseth.
Poor weather conditions continue to make life unpredictable at Norway's airports. On Thursday night a charter plane with 123 on board slid off the runway during take-off at Harstad/Narvik Evenes Airport.
According to Avinor's manager at the airport, Reidar Johansen, the plane was evacuated without incident and there were no injuries. Though there was snowfall Johansen reported that the runway had not been especially slippery.
The plane, an Airbus 320 from MyTravel Airways, was en route to Norwich, England with tourists who had visited a killer whale safari at Ofotfjorden.
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