Thomsonfly - Airprox at Coventry

[twostroke]

From today's Coventry Evening Telegraph. Anybody got any further details ?

A pilot on a Thomsonfly flight arriving at Coventry Airport had to take evasive action after a light aircraft entered its airspace as it was preparing to land.

Passengers on board the flight from Valencia had to be rerouted after the stray light aircraft came too close and its safety ‘may have been compromised’.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are to investigate the incident.

An Airprox report has been filed after the two planes came into closer proximity than permitted, at around 4.30pm on Wednesday, May 12.

[5150]

Death Jet seconds from disaster........

[A Very Civil Pilot]

Where were the passengers re-routed to, that the aircraft and crew weren't?

[MerchantVenturer]

Where were the passengers re-routed to, that the aircraft and crew weren't?

To the waiting hacks so they could recount their death-defying stories?

[Ex Oggie]

The word 'evasive' is used by the press together with other little gems such as 'looping the loop', 'near miss', 'crash landing', 'stunt pilot' and 'acrobatics', rarely used in their correct context.

The quote is quite misleading for several reasons. If the 737 was in contolled airspace, then the light aircraft breached the ANO and is liable to prosecution, or (unlikely) ATC made an error.

If the light aircraft was in the open FIR, then it did not 'stray' into the 737's airspace. It had every right to be where it was. Rules are quite simple in the open FIR. See and be seen, primary piece of kit is the Mark I eyeball.

Also, the filing of an AirProx does not in itself imply that there was any risk of collision, and is certainly not worthy of more than a cursory mention in the press at most.

ExO

[twostroke]

exoggie

My understanding was it was your second scenario, and that the notion that the light plane had 'strayed' into the Thomsonflys path, as stated in the paper, was incorrect as it implied a right of way for the bigger plane., wheras it should have been a 'see and be seen' as you say.

But rather than speculate, I just wondered whether any more details were available. How long do these things take to get published?

[EastMids]

Hmmm.... Southbound out of EMA in a PA-28 Sunday last, just west of Leicester city centre at 2000 feet climbing in the open FIR (well to the east of the CVT approach) and still under a flight information service from EMA Approach, the controller said "Suggest you free-call Coventry now as there appears to be an inbound contact in the procedure at 3000 feet" - normally they're happy enough to hang onto us much longer than that, until we're well south of Bruntingthorpe. That's all it was though, no obligation, open FIR. As it was, the 737 was already with six miles so no where near us as we were well east of the CVT final approach. Non the less, it must be all too easy to forget that a previous sleepy hollow now has 737s inbound IFR at regular invervals in what is still unregulated open airspace.