Description

On 18 December 2010, a Boeing 737-300 being operated by Norwegian on a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen took off from runway 24 in normal daylight visibility in accordance with its clearance and after becoming airborne overflew, by a significant margin and without sighting it, a bird patrol vehicle which was also on the runway in accordance with a clearance issued by the same controller. The conflict was not recognised until the vehicle subsequently advised vacating the runway.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Dutch Safety Board. On 21 January 2012, whilst the Investigation was still in progress, a virtually identical incident occurred, in which an aircraft had been issued take-off clearance while a bird control vehicle was still present on the runway. This prompted an examination in even greater depth of the systemic effectiveness of safety management at the airport. The Investigation considered the context for the controller error which led to the conflict in terms of the tasks performed by both controllers and bird control personnel and their associated infrastructure and working practices. The Investigation also examined the effectiveness of runway incursion risk management and of strategic supervision of operational safety at the airport by the Dutch Government.

The circumstances which led to the conflict were, in summary, as follows: