While the authorities are still
investigating circumstances which led the ET-AQW B767 to land at Arusha
Airport instead of KIA , clues have emerged that the incident can be accounted as due to miscommunication between the pilots of FLT ET 815 and the tower at KIA.
According to a statement by the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) Director General, Mr. Fadhil J. Manongi, the aircraft was scheduled to land at
Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) at 1255 pm.
The aircraft
established radio contact with Kilimanjaro Control Tower at 1229pm and
was instructed to continue with his flight and report when having the
airport (KIA) in sight. Thereafter the pilot reported having the field
in sight and was allowed to continue visually to enable him land in
westward direction (runway 27).
After the pilot reported on left base
of runway 27 (and having the field in sight), the Air Traffic
Controller cleared the aircraft for landing. The Air Traffic Controller
after a while without sighting the aircraft tried in vain to
re-established radio contact with the aircraft and was later informed by
Arusha Air Traffic Controller that an aircraft (Boeing 767) was landing
at Arusha Airport runway 27.
There was no emergency reported by the crew of Ethiopian Airline flight ET 815.
Kilimanjaro Airport was available,
although with a displaced runway. The displacement was due to a disabled
light aircraft on the Runway. KIA has a total runway length of 3,600
meters. The displacement left the runway length available for use of
3,200 meters. The crews of flight ET 815 were informed of this
information by the operating Air Traffic Controller.
The full statement can be accessed from TCAA website.
On the other side, heads are now cracking on how will the plane fly out from Arusha which has a runway of 1,640
meters long, which is short for safe operation of this type of aircraft.
The aircraft type requires at least 1,798 meters to land with maximum
landing weight. But to takeoff,normal operations the Boeing 767-300ER requires a runway with a minimum length of 2,713 meters.
According to ET experts among the options to be considered to enable the huge jet to fly out include removing the fuel and some items on board or even extending the runaway.
Other sources reports that, by 4pm yesterday, engineers had
put the plane on one end of the runway, but it was not clear when they
will attempt to fly it from the airport. A team of six engineers from
the aircraft owners in Ethiopia arrived in Arusha yesterday and were
joined by others from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) and
Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA).
The aircraft with registration number
ET-AQW was operating a regular scheduled flight ET 815 from Addis Ababa
to Kilimanjaro and thereafter was supposed to proceed to Mombasa. It had 213 passengers and crew on board and they were all safe and evacuated via emergency escape chutes.
Updates:
ET-AQW has eventually taken off successfully from Arusha Airport. Further updates will follow.
Updates:
ET-AQW has eventually taken off successfully from Arusha Airport. Further updates will follow.
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