DH8C / DH8C, vicinity Wellington New Zealand, 2019

DH8C / DH8C, vicinity Wellington New Zealand, 2019

Summary

On 12 March 2019, a Bombardier DHC8-300 which had requested and been granted a visual approach to Wellington was instructed to follow another of the operator’s DHC8 aircraft already in the circuit but instead turned in front of it after the its crew identified the Airbus A320 as the other DHC8. The conflict was detected by ATC and advised and coordinated TCAS RAs then followed. The Investigation noted that whilst the inability of the second DHC8 crew to correctly identify the aircraft they should follow had been causal, procedures had delayed the ATC response to the automatically detected conflict.

Description 

On 12 March 2019, a Bombardier DHC8-300 (ZK-NEH) being operated for Air New Zealand by its wholly owned subsidiary Air Nelson on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Rotorua to Wellington as RLK235 and a second Bombardier DHC8-300 (ZK-NEF) also being operated for Air New Zealand by Air Nelson on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Gisborne to Wellington as RLK285 lost safe separation in day VMC when the second aircraft failed to follow the first during the approaching traffic sequence after requesting and accepting a visual approach. ATC detected the conflict and issued avoidance instructions and coordinated TCAS RAs followed with safe separation thereby restored. 

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