On August 13th, an Airbus A319 from LATAM Airlines and a Boeing 737-800 from Copa Airlines nearly collided in mid-air near Guayaquil Airport (GYE) in Ecuador.
According to local media reports, the Guayaquil airport control tower changed the airport entry procedure after reporting a flock of birds, closing the runway. However, a communication failure caused the LATAM A319 and the 737 to be close to each other at the time of the approach.
According to Flightradar24 data, after closing the runway, it is possible to notice the approach between the aircraft, which had a possible collision avoided thanks to the traffic collision prevention system (TCAS), causing them to follow in different directions.
🔴URGENT: CASI IMPACTAN 2 AVIONES EN EL ESPACIO AÉREO DE @Aeropuerto_AAG Y @DGAC_Ecuador IT IS NOT TRANSPARENT: (I open thread 1/4)
⁃On 13 August 2022 3:00pm 200 engers were about to die while aircraft approached the @aeropuertogye runway pic.twitter.com/jqNlKFOA04
— Galo Arellano (@Galoecuador) August 20, 2022
After the incident, the Directorate of Civil Aviation of Ecuador announced that it is investigating the case at José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport, with the removal of traffic controllers while the investigations last.
What is a TCAS?
According to ANAC, TCAS is the acronym established by the ICAO – International Civil Aviation Organization for the system that shows the pilot of an airplane the relative position of another aircraft flying nearby, whenever the transponder is in operation. In the event of a collision threat, the system will indicate, visually and audibly, an ascent or descent maneuver, necessary to avoid the collision.
Unfortunately, this system gained more notoriety in 2006 after the tragic accident of the GOAL 1907 between an Embrar Legacy and a 737-800 that collided due to a series of errors, including the wrong use of the transponder by the Legacy, leaving the TCAS inoperative, and thus, the two aircraft collided.
With information: ANAC
