Description

On 16 October 2010, in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC), a Boeing 737-800 being operated by Turkish Airlines on a passenger flight from Dublin to Istanbul Atatürk entered runway 28 at Dublin whilst an Airbus A319 being operated by Germanwings on a scheduled passenger flight from Koln to Dublin was about 0.5nm from touchdown on the same runway. The Airbus immediately initiated a missed approach from approximately 200 ft aal simultaneously with an ATC call to do so.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Irish AAIU. It was established that the Boeing 737 had entered the runway without an ATC clearance to do so and the Airbus A319 had been cleared to land. It was also noted that the holding point which was the clearance limit was a combined holding point for entry to the full length of both Runway 28 and Runway 34.

It was noted that all surface markings and signage relevant to the incursion was in accordance with ICAO Annex 14 and that although Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System incorporating RIMCAS had been activated at Dublin by the time of completion of the Investigation, it was not available at the time of the Incident.

The Investigation concluded that the aircraft commander of the Boeing 737 “was distracted by ‘heads-in’ tasks inside the cockpit during the taxi and did not correctly see and interpret the signage for the combined holding position of RWY 34 and CAT I RWY 28”.