Description

On 6 April 2015, a Hungarian-operated Airbus A320 on a passenger flight from Timisoara, Romania to Memmingen, Germany as JA 458 was descending towards final approach at destination in Class E airspace under radar control in day VMC when it came into close proximity with a Grob G102 glider operating out of Bad Wörishofen glider airfield on a training flight and unknown to ATC. The minimum lateral separation after avoiding action was 0.25 nm and the vertical separation at that time estimated as between 200 and 300 feet.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the German Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung (Germany) (BFU). QAR data from the A320, the transcript of ATC communications with the A320 and military recordings of primary radar data were made available to assist the Investigation.

The 29-year-old A320 Captain had a total flying experience of more than 5,400 hours including 3,250 hours on type. The 39-year-old Co-pilot had a total flying experience of 7230 hours including 410 hours on type. The 17-year-old student pilot of the glider involved had "more than 38 hours flying experience". The 64-year-old instructor who had authorised the student solo flight and was in another glider with a second student held both a Sailplane Pilot Licence (SPL) and a PPL(A) and had a total flying experience of more than 2,100 hours.