THE AIR Accident Investigations Board has blamed an air traffic
controller’s “lack of control and intervention” for a near miss at Manchester
airport.
The incident happened on September 16 last year when a
Boeing 747 returning from Amsterdam was given clearance to land while a BAC One
11 aircraft, that was taking off from the same runway, had not yet left the ground.
The Boeing 747 pilot aborted the landing just before it
touched down.
Nobody was hurt but the two aircraft came within 860 metres
of each other.
A spokeswoman for the National Air Traffic Service, which
is responsible for air traffic control, described the near-miss as “regrettable”
and said that all Manchester Airport’s air traffic controllers had been
reminded of the procedures they should follow when landing an aircraft since
the incident.