The Dutch Safety Board (OVV) wants aircraft landing and taking off at Schiphol no longer to cross, the council writes in a report on Thursday. As a result, there is a chance that aircraft will come too close to each other and that will create “unwanted safety risks”.
The Dutch Safety Board (OVV) wants aircraft landing and taking off at Schiphol no longer to cross, the council writes in a report on Thursday. As a result, there is a chance that aircraft will come too close to each other and that will create “undesirable safety risks”.
Normally, an aircraft is not allowed to take off until another aircraft approaching Schiphol and on an intersecting course has landed. But under certain circumstances, this need not be met. As a result, more planes per hour can depart from Schiphol.
If there is a deviation from the standard regulations, an aircraft can already start before the landing aircraft has landed. “This goes well in almost all cases. But when a landing plane makes a go-around at the last minute and this is not noticed or is noticed too late by air traffic control, a dangerous situation arises,” said the council.
In 2018, a landing aircraft made a go-around on the Zwanenburgbaan, while an aircraft had already started from the Kaagbaan and could no longer be stopped. On these runways, planes have a crossing course.
The planes approached each other, but because air traffic control and the pilots of both planes intervened, a collision was prevented, according to the OVV.
‘It must be structurally different at Schiphol’
In 2007 and 2015, planes also approached each other through the same procedure. The standard procedure was then adjusted, but the possibility to deviate from it remained. The Dutch Safety Board therefore recommends removing the exception to the rule and only allowing the aircraft to take off when the possibly crossing aircraft has actually landed.
According to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the OVV, it must be “structurally different” at Schiphol. “The safety risk seems small in this case, but the impact of a collision of two aircraft is so great that you should not want to take on this risk.”
Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen (Infrastructure) calls the recommendations “sensible” and believes that they should be followed up.
