A sudden power failure at the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority control tower in HCM City caused a near-miss between a military and a civilian plane.
Control tower of Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority
The crew on duty was suspended, and the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has put together an investigation team. Lai Xuan Thanh, head of CAA said this is the first time they have experienced such a serious technical problem.
The initial investigation indicates that all three uninterruptible power supply (UPS) broke down simultaneously on November 21. The one-hour power failure seriously affected the flights into and out of Tan Son Nhat Airport.
According to Vietnam Airlines, one of their flights had just taken off when a military helicopter crossed in front of its flight path, missing the craft by just 200 feet. The Minister of Transport ordered the CAA and Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation to complete the investigation quickly.
“At that time, 54 planes were operating and 8 were ready to land. Tan Son Nhat Airport could not receive incoming or outgoing flights through the flight information region. A total of 92 planes were affected.” Thanh said.
The CAA in Hanoi was asked to help with flight control, while international flights were asked to circle outside Vietnamese airspace. Thanh said they have not yet calculated the damage. He went on to say they have suspended the employees who were responsible for the power grid. They said the inspection will be looking for design flaws, lapses in maintenance, deviations from normal procedures or any omissions in the training courses in order to find out the incident occurred.
Đăng ký: VietNam News