Two Air Canada planes failed to collide in Toronto Pearson after a Boeing 777 flight crew and air traffic control missed a radio call that another plane was still on the runway, the report said.
The Transport Safety Council of Canada (TSB) released a report on Tuesday on the March 7, 2020 incident, which the council described as “track invasion and collision risk” in Toronto Pearson.
According to a TSB report, the Air Canada Embraer 190 took off from 06L just before 9:50 a.m. The plane, bound for Denver, was carrying 83 passengers and four crew members.
As the plane took off, Air Canada’s Boeing 777 was instructed to line up on the same runway. There were 345 passengers and 14 crew members on board the plane bound for Halifax.
“While the Embraer 190 was accelerating on take-off, it hit a bird,” TSB said. “The crew initiated a rejected take-off and called the radio to announce that they were refusing to take off.”
TSB said the Boeing 777 flight crew and air traffic control missed the rejected Embraer 190 take-off call because the Boeing 777 pilot had reported his own permission to take off on the same frequency.
“The controller issued a take-off permit for the Boeing 777 without knowing about the bird’s impact and the rejected take-off of the Embraer 190,” the report said.
The Boeing 777 began to accelerate.
“For the next 25 seconds, the controller turned his attention to the northern end of the airport, where two planes were approaching runway 05. From his displays, he could see a Boeing 777 and an Embraer 190, but saw no conflict at the time.” report.
According to the report, the flight crew of the Boeing 777 reached a top speed of 231 km / h before noticing the other plane in front of it and refusing to take off.
At the moment, the distance between the two planes is narrowing to its nearest point of 1646 meters, TSB reported.
“The dispatcher confirmed the rejected take-off with the crew, not yet aware of the presence of the Embraer 190 on the runway, and waited to provide additional assistance to the Boeing 777,” the report said. “After searching the expected position of the Embraer 190 (in the air, at the end of the runway), the controller saw the Embraer 190 on the runway and realized that he had also made a rejected take-off.”
No aircraft were injured or damaged during the incident, TSB said.
“The investigation found that the Embraer 190 transponder transmitted that the plane was in the air after the plane accelerated more than 50 knots,” the report said. “As a result, although in accordance with current standards, an inaccurate condition in the air was transmitted while the aircraft remained on the ground during take-off and refused to take off.”
“The use of this data from the NAV CANADA intrusion monitoring and conflict warning subsystem (RIMCAS) resulted in inaccurate identification of the Embraer 190 and Boeing 777 as in the air while the two aircraft were still on the ground. This led to delayed and inaccurate RIMCAS signals and delayed the air traffic controller’s response to the risk of collision. “
TSB said the risk was mitigated when the Boeing 777 flight crew refused to take off.
Add Comment