Description

On 11 May 2010, a Bombardier DHC8-400 aircraft being operated by Porter AL on a scheduled passenger flight Toronto City to Ottawa and another aircraft of the same type and operator on a scheduled passenger flight from Montreal to Toronto City came into close proximity south east of the airport and received and actioned co-ordinated TCAS RAs. Minimum separation was 300 feet vertically at the same altitude. There were no abrupt manoeuvres and none of the occupants were injured.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Canadian TSB. It was established that the conflict occurred in Class ‘D’ airspace so that ATC separation was only provided between Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) aircraft. It was noted, however, that the ATC ‘Manual of Operations’ “requires that conflict resolution be provided when equipment and workload permits”. Such conflict resolution is stated as requiring “either visual separation or a minimum of 500 feet vertically or 1 mile laterally”.

The occurrence controller was occupying the designated radar position for the airspace involved at the ATC Unit responsible for it whilst the shift supervisor was providing OJTI to a controller at the data position where the responsibilities include “identifying and resolving conflicts and coordinating with the radar controller”. At the time of the occurrence, it was found that the radar controller had been engaged in discussions with the trainee controller.