The president of the aviation accident investigation office says there were more air traffic controllers alone in the towers and argues that rules are needed to define when this can happen.
The existence of a single controller in the air control tower was “regular practice” at the time the GPIAAF (Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aviation Accidents and Railway Accidents) prepared the report on an incident that occurred at the airport Francisco Sá Carneiro in April 2021. The indication was advanced by the president of the GPIAAF, Nelson Oliveira, during a hearing in the parliamentary commission of Economy and Public Works on the aforementioned investigation, where a case was known at the Ponta Delgada airport Occurred in May 2021. Also evaluated. .
This report, still preliminary and without contradictions, was published for the first time by the newspaper Expresso, with the final version already known in the last days of 2022 and which confirmed the existence of “serious flaws” in air control that led to the authorization. of aircraft takeoffs and landings when inspection or maintenance vehicles were still on the runway. In both incidents, the GPIAAF concluded that the accident was avoided due to “exceptional circumstances” and outside the ATS system (Air Traffic Service) —which should prevent these situations— and due to the intervention of third parties.
Final report confirms serious failures in air traffic control in Porto and Ponta Delgada
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Source: Observadora
