Description

On 13 April 2007, an Airbus A320 (F-GJVA) being operated by Air France on a scheduled passenger flight from Sofia to Paris CDG under call sign AF268P entered the runway without clearance in normal day visibility having acknowledged that a Bombardier CRJ-200 (D-ACRM) being operated by Lufthansa on a scheduled passenger flight from Düsseldorf to Sofia under call sign DLH 5HW which would be landing on the same runway was in sight. ATC, having given a landing clearance to the CRJ-200 without noticing the incursion, were obliged to cancel it. The go around instruction was acknowledged at a range from touchdown of 5.5nm

Investigation

A Commission for Investigation of an Aviation Occurrence was appointed by order of the Minister of Transport.

It was found that the TWR controller had not issued the instruction to the A320 to hold clear of the runway whilst expecting an immediate take off using the correct terminology and also that the A320 crew had failed to read it back fully, but had not the been challenged to do so by TWR.

It was noted that the runway involved, runway 27, was a recently opened one, displaced to the east of the former runway which had "changed the operational conditions". A new Terminal had been constructed at the same time and was located "in such a way that it hides about 300 - 320m of the runway in the observation sector of the air traffic controller to the East". In the absence of compensatory arrangements, this had made the task of the TWR controller more difficult.