'Like a horror movie': Cathay-Dragonair near-miss incident

The Dragonair Airbus in a near-miss drama this month avoided a collision with another Cathay Pacific flight within minutes of the first incident.

The series of near-misses came to light yesterday after an investigation by The Standard.

A senior air traffic controller on duty on September 18 said Hong Kong's entire airspace was in "utter chaos" at the time, with at least three incoming Cathay flights calling "Mayday" due to low fuel and at least five flights waiting to be diverted because of bad weather.

"There was total disarray and even very experienced controllers like myself have never seen anything like it and were deeply shocked - we still are," he said. "It really was like a bad horror movie."

The controller revealed that, just a few minutes after Dragonair flight KA433 almost collided with Cathay flight CX841, it had to act fast to avoid slamming into another Cathay flight, CX347 from Beijing. "These two aircraft were just too close," he said.

KA433 was an inbound Airbus A330 from Kaoshiung, Taiwan, while the Boeing 777 on flight CX841 was in- bound from New York. There was a total of 613 passengers and crew members on the two planes.

The controller also criticized the Civil Aviation Department, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair for saying there was no risk of collision, even though the flights were so close they were already in visual contact.

He said two aircraft that collided near Uberlingen in Germany in 2002 also had each other in sight for several minutes but they still crashed. All 71 people onboard those planes were killed.

"You have two aircraft flying at each other at 22,000 feet at a speed of 300 miles per hour each while still turning, and no risk of collision?

"You must be joking! If they had not turned so sharply the distance would have been zero miles," he said.

Former director-general of civil aviation Albert Lam Kwong-yu said on Monday the two flights were about six seconds from crashing, judging from the distance between them and the normal speed of aircraft.

A senior Dragonair pilot who was flying that day - although not one of the aircraft involved - confirmed the near collision between KA433 and CX841.

"In 15 years of flying I have rarely heard of a single event happening, let alone that many," he said.

A CAD spokeswoman confirmed KA433 had a "loss of separation" after avoiding a collision with CX841.

She said that, due to severe weather, KA433 could not accept the initial radar headings and subsequent instructions from the air traffic control center.

"They passed each other 3.8 NM [nautical miles] horizontally and 500 feet vertically apart," she said.

She also said three Cathay flights declared fuel emergencies on that day.

The department said on Monday that CX841 and KA433 did not respond to the controller's instruction to turn. A collision was prevented after the avoidance systems on the two flights were activated, with KA433 climbing and CX841 descending.

But in another twist yesterday, the department announced that, although KA433 did respond to its instructions, it did not make the turn as it was already turning in another direction.

As for CX841, the crew responded to instructions at first, but then the department said the flight did not receive other instructions given later.

Both the senior controller and the Dragonair pilot claim the air traffic control center is seriously understaffed.

The controller said morale among controllers is at an "all-time low" and their feelings about the management are "very negative."

http://www.thestandard.com.hk