In aviation, there are often severe or dangerous situations. There is a whole range of so-called safety barriers – which should lead to a minimal number of these incidents. Regardless, air transport is consistently the safest means of transport – thanks to its clearly defined procedures, numerous safety elements, and its level of safety which is comparable to or equal to that of nuclear power plants. History has taught us in both aviation and the nuclear industry that these issues must be approached responsibly, and personnel must be thoroughly trained. Unfortunately, recent hazardous events at airports might lead to concern. Therefore, such incidents should be thoroughly verified and investigated – conclusions should be drawn. If someone was undertrained or the situation was caused by other factors, these elements should be eliminated as soon as possible.
“Incidents occurring more and more frequently at Polish airports are very worrying. Immediately there are questions, is this dangerous, why are planes going into a second circuit, is this a standard situation?” said Janusz Janiszewski, aviation expert and former president of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, to eNewsroom.pl.
“The procedure of a plane going into a second circuit is of course practiced both by pilots and air traffic controllers. It may happen for various reasons, e.g. sudden intrusion onto the runway of some vehicle or contamination on the runway, or even an animal that runs across the runway. Such situations have occurred – then indeed the go-around procedure is used and the approach is repeated. However, what is worrying these days is the multitude of these events – because it is not just one incident that occured in Warsaw, but an increasing amount of these events nationwide. The reasons could be various. On the one hand, it may be a misunderstanding of the air traffic controller’s instructions. It may be interference on the frequency. It could also be the pilot’s failure to execute the instructions permitting the air traffic controller. There could be a loss of the pilot’s situational awareness. There could also be a loss of the air traffic controller’s situational awareness. This sometimes happens. However, when we have a multitude of these events, this can lead to the finding that unfortunately the training of air traffic controllers is not sufficient, or the person who was on duty that day sadly forgot about the procedures or got ‘rusty’, as we say in aviation jargon. Unfortunately, they did not manage the situation. Of course, in extreme cases in the history of aviation, there has been such a situation where there were deliberate actions to bring danger to aviation. I hope that this is not the case here,” Janiszewski analysed.
Source: https://managerplus.pl/coraz-czestsze-incydenty-na-polskich-lotniskach-19258
