A320 / F50, Adelaide Australia, 2016

A320 / F50, Adelaide Australia, 2016

Summary

On 17 August 2016, a Fokker F50 crossed an active runway at Adelaide ahead of an A320 which was about to land after both its pilots and the controller involved had made assumptions about the content of radio transmissions they were aware they had not fully heard. The Investigation found that the A320 crew had responded promptly to the potential conflict by initiating a low go around over the other aircraft and noted that stop bars were not installed at Adelaide. In addition, aircraft taxiing across active runways were not required to obtain their crossing clearances on the runway control frequency.

Description

On 17 August 2016, a Fokker F50 (VH-FKV) being operated by Alliance Airlines on a scheduled passenger flight from Olympic Dam to Adelaide as 'Unity 3201' crossed an active runway in normal day visibility when taxiing at Adelaide after landing, whilst an Airbus A320 (VJ-VGI) being operated by Jetstar Airways was about to touchdown on the same runway. After initially instructing the F50 to 'hold short', the controller responsible for the taxiing F50 realised that this was no longer appropriate and changed the instruction to expedite the crossing. By this time the A320 had already commenced a go around and passed overhead.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). It was noted that the F50 was being operated by a second-in command Captain designated as PF occupying the left hand seat with a Check Captain in command and occupying the right hand seat. The nature of the check/training being performed on the F50 and the experience of the four pilots and the controller who was responsible for the F50 as it taxied to its parking gate was not recorded.

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