If your travel plans include a flight to Mexico City, you may want to buckle your seat belt a little tighter.
A flight into Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport was mistakenly given clearance to land on a runway where another airliner was preparing for takeoff last Saturday night. The pilots of the descending plane were able to abort the landing, but the incident was a “close call,” air traffic controllers said, according to the Associated Press.
Surprisingly, both aircraft belong to the Mexican airline Volaris.
“Thanks to our pilots’ training and their impeccable following of procedures, no passenger or crew member was at risk,” Enrique Beltranena, Volaris’s chief executive, wrote on Twitter. “Following the protocols, I immediately requested an investigation from our Operational Safety area, as well as from the aeronautical authorities. At Volaris, we always operate with strict adherence to procedures and with safety as a priority.”
A Troubling Situation
What’s worrisome is that the near miss on Saturday isn’t an isolated event.
There have been at least 17 incidents that triggered ground proximity warning system alerts for planes approaching Benito Juarez Airport in the past year, wrote the International Air Transport Association recently in a letter. The association, which represents about 290 airlines, sent the letter to the head of Mexican Airspace Navigation Services, which is Mexico’s government agency responsible for managing the airspace.
“As you know, these alarms, without the quick action of the flight crew, can lead to a scenario of controlled flight into terrain, CFIT, considered by the industry to be one of the highest risk indicators in operational safety, and with the highest accident rate, as well as fatalities,” the letter said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Furthermore, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations also issued a safety bulletin about such incidents just last week. In its letter, the association suggests the recent opening of Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles International Airport may be a contributing factor to the ongoing situation.
“It would appear that with the opening of this newly converted airport, air traffic control has apparently received little training and support,” the bulletin said, according to Reuters.
Corrective Actions
Now, following an investigation of Saturday’s incident, a government official has announced operations at Benito Juarez Airport will be reduced.
“There is this instruction to reduce operations by 25 percent in 12 months,” Transportation and Infrastructure Undersecretary Jiminez Pons said, according to Reuters. “The airport has been saturated and in terrible condition for decades.”
Pons explained that Mexico is currently short about 250 air traffic controllers. To help with air traffic congestion, some flights will also be diverted to the new Felipe Angeles Airport, he continued.
Regarding the incident on Saturday, “The pilots were able to figure it out. We never put people’s safety at risk,” Pons said. “Yes, it was a frightening situation, but the defense of the pilots was put to the test, and, thank God, these people are prepared.”
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