"Heart-stopping" Vietnam Airlines planes almost collided in the sky

Wrong runway landing in Cam Ranh

On the afternoon of April 29, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam suspended all crew members of flight VN7344 that mistakenly landed at Cam Ranh airport.

Earlier, on the same afternoon, Vietnam Airlines (VNA) A321 aircraft, flight number VN7344, Ho Chi Minh City - Cam Ranh route, landed on runway 2, which has not been put into operation yet, at Cam Ranh International Airport.

The flight crew consisted of 7 people, the captain was American and the co-pilot was Vietnamese. The total number of passengers was 203.

Planes almost collided in the air

On February 20, 2017, a civil aircraft at Cam Ranh airport received a takeoff order, but 2 minutes later received an alarm about a plane flying lower than 500ft (more than 152m) below.

Specifically, at 11:38 p.m., the A321 aircraft with registration number HVN 1552 was preparing to take off for Noi Bai. At the same time, the airborne collision avoidance system (TCAS) issued an alarm when an Airbus 321 of civil aviation and a military aircraft were training and violated the minimum separation in the Cam Ranh airport area.

The cause of this incident that threatened flight safety was determined to be due to inaccurate flight control coordination.

Previously, on October 29, 2014, at Tan Son Nhat airport, an incident occurred when a VNA Airbus A321 took off and a military aircraft Mi 172/423 turned right and crossed this takeoff direction.

Subsequent analysis of the incident showed that the cause was due to the improper organization of the contract between civil aviation and the military.

If the military wants to let an aircraft cross the runway, it must notify the civil controllers in advance. However, in this case, the military did not notify in advance.

Plane lost contact because air traffic controller fell asleep

Another incident occurred on March 9, 2017, when the crew of two Vietjet Air flights made dozens of calls but could not contact the Air Traffic Control Station at Cat Bi Airport (Hai Phong).

The pilot of flight VJ921 lost contact with air traffic control for 32 minutes and 36 seconds; flight VJ 292 lost contact for 24 minutes and 31 seconds.

Specifically, flight VJ921 was scheduled to depart from Cat Bi airport to Seoul (South Korea) at 11:45 p.m. Between 10:51 p.m. and 11:24 p.m., in preparation for takeoff, the flight captain contacted Cat Bi Air Traffic Control a total of 29 times, but received no response. The flight then had to depart at 11:58 p.m., 13 minutes late.

On the same day, flight VJ292 from Ho Chi Minh City was scheduled to land at Cat Bi airport at 11:30 p.m. When the plane reached the Quang Binh area, the pilot established early contact with Cat Bi Air Traffic Control Station to inform that he was preparing to enter the approach zone but was unsuccessful.

Between 11:14 p.m. and 11:38 p.m., the flight captain made 10 calls to the Control Tower, but received no response until 11:39 p.m.

The initial cause was determined to be that contract air traffic controller Nguyen Van Chanh (60 years old) was not present at his duty position from 9:40 p.m. on March 9 to 5:40 a.m. on March 10. Meanwhile, the main duty officer Luong Thi Minh Thu (31 years old) slept from 9:40 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. on March 9, and only established contact with the VJ921 flight crew at 11:24 p.m.

Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) later disciplined a series of related officials.

Air traffic control tower power outage

In 2014, Vietnam Airlines also had a serious incident: the Tan Son Nhat air traffic control tower lost power for 35 minutes.

The air traffic control tower lost power, causing the radar signal to be completely lost, making it unable to receive flights arriving/departing from Tan Son Nhat airport airspace.

The incident occurred at around 11am on November 20, causing many flights to and from Tan Son Nhat to be delayed. Many flights had to return to their departure points or land at other alternate airports.

The incident not only affected domestic flight operations but also international flight operations.

When the power outage occurred in the FIR (flight information region), Ho Chi Minh City had 54 active aircraft under management. If we count the 92 active flights in 35 minutes, of which 8 were flying into the approach area of ​​Tan Son Nhat airport to prepare for landing...

Fortunately, the air traffic control tower promptly switched to emergency flight operations, so there were no incidents that threatened flight safety.