A major air accident was avoided in Scotland after two commercial airlines missed each other on the same runway at Edinburgh airport on August 13, 2018.
According to the United Kingdom's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), an Airbus A320 of British low-cost airline EasyJet took off from Edinburgh airport with a gap of just two seconds before a Boeing 737 jet of the Norwegian Air landed on the same runway. Even though the incident took place last year, the details were made public by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) only on Thursday.
According to the reports, the incident took place at Edinburgh airport on 9.48 am, when the Norwegian plane from the United States was given clearance to land by the airport authorities even though the EasyJet Airbus A320 bound for Luton was still on the runway. The CAA has described it as a "runway incursion", saying: "The 737 was over the runway surface when the A320 was still on its take-off roll," reports the Independent.
The two aircraft were as close as 850m, just over half a mile apart. The Airbus was making a normal departure under the control of a trainee air-traffic controller. The Norwegian plane was inbound after a transatlantic flight from Stewart airport in New York State, adds the report.
The incident took place due to several factors such as the delay in the take-off of the Airbus and the speed of the Boeing to be higher than usual led to this.
"The trainee controller lacked the experience to resolve the situation in a timely manner and the supervising On-The-Job Training Instructor judged it safer to let the 737 land than to initiate a go-around in proximity to the departing aircraft," revealed the report.
