Air traffic control crew suspended after two planes nearly collided

Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) said it has received a preliminary report from the Southern Air Traffic Management Company on the occurrence of short-term conflict alerts (STCA) when operating flights under the responsibility of the Ho Chi Minh Area Control Center.

The incident involved flights VJC 244 from Ho Chi Minh City to Thanh Hoa, HVN 1575 from Hanoi to Da Lat and HVN 1557.

Earlier, on the morning of June 19, while giving instructions to navigate the above flights, the air traffic controllers had a short-term conflict alert (STCA) situation occur. This is a software of the air traffic management unit with the function of issuing an alarm when aircraft are too close to each other (violating the minimum separation distance).

According to VATM's report, as soon as the short-term conflict warning appeared, air traffic controllers issued instructions for the planes to avoid each other and return to a safe distance.

As soon as the incident occurred, the on-duty crew reported it, and then the Southern Air Traffic Management Company temporarily suspended the relevant air traffic controllers and proceeded to verify the incident, as well as report to the competent authority.

Upon receiving the information, VATM immediately decided to establish an internal investigation team to clarify the cause of the incident.

In aviation, the minimum separation requirement between flights is similar to the safety distance requirement between vehicles on the road, to prevent collisions.

The difference is that car drivers can use their eyes to estimate and maintain a safe distance, while pilots will combine the aircraft's built-in navigation system with air traffic control instructions.

Layers of "fence" are in place to ensure that the possibility of a mid-air collision is virtually impossible. However, the situation in which the STCA issued a warning suggests that human error may have occurred.

In 2002, a violation of the distance between two flights led to a disaster when a Russian Tupolev 154 plane collided in the air with a Boeing 757 transport plane in Ueberlingen (Germany), killing 71 people.