PPRuNe Forums - Air Prox Dublin Airport Dec 07

Another near miss in Ireland is being investigated it appears.
Reported today in the Irish Independant, link below.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...t-1308889.html

This time it was at Dublin airport. It appears that the chopper pilot lost the run of himself. Full report won't be available for a month or two I'd imagine. Extract from the article below:

An investigation is under way into how a helicopter and a private jet came within 30ft of each other as they took off from Dublin Airport shortly before Christmas, it emerged yesterday.

It is understood that the helicopter pilot was cleared by air traffic control to cross behind the executive jet, which had just taken off on December 17 last.
However, the helicopter pilot actually passed in front of it, forcing the airplane pilot to take evasive action.
The air traffic controller had earlier asked the helicopter pilot if he had seen the departing jet and he replied that he had.

It is accepted procedure for controllers to clear helicopters to fly behind departing flights, in order to keep traffic at the busy airport moving.
The near-miss is believed to have happened at around 500ft and it is unclear how many passengers and crew were on board the two aircraft at the time.
The incident was a serious breach of air safety regulations and was immediately reported by the Irish Aviation Authority to the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU).
A spokesperson for the unit last night confirmed it was examining the case but said he could not provide further details as the investigation is on-going.
The earlier near-collision between a Ryanair Boeing 737 and a Flightline MD-83 off the south-east coast on September 23 was the most serious air-safety scare investigated by the AAIU in seven years.