A preliminary inquiry into the near miss involving an Air Malta aircraft last April has concluded that the radar was functioning properly when a small Italian plane appeared out of the blue.
Air traffic controllers are expected to react strongly to the Department of Civil Aviation's inquiry into the April 21 incident, to the extent they are even prepared to take action if the inquiry implicates them, The Times has learnt.
A mid-air collision between a Boeing 737, on its final approach at the end of a flight from Rome with some 80 passengers on board, and the Storm light aircraft was averted by the timely intervention of the Air Malta pilot. Both aircraft were flying over the highly populated area of Zebbug and Attard on an overcast Saturday afternoon.
The Italian aircraft was not equipped with a transponder and, consequently, the Air Malta pilots could not spot the impending danger on the onboard traffic-collision avoidance system, until their jet came face to face with it.
The pilot of the Italian-registered ultra light aircraft had taken off from Gela, in Sicily, purportedly to fly to Lampedusa and back, but landed in Malta saying he was short of fuel. Rather surprisingly, the Department of Civil Aviation allowed the Italian pilots leave Malta a mere five hours after potentially causing the island's biggest air disaster.
The inquiry report was submitted to Competitiveness Minister Censu Galea over the weekend and he has relayed the findings for further investigation to Capt. Denis Caruana, Chief Inspector of the Air Accidents Bureau.
Air Malta also carried out its own inquiry, a report on which was forwarded to the DCA.
The DCA inquiry, whose conclusions were seen by The Times, indicate that the unidentified aircraft was tracked by the Maltese radar system 13 minutes before the near air miss took place.
Two radar-manufacturing experts were brought over by Malta Air Traffic Services to check the radar recording system and confirmed that the equipment was functioning properly at the time.
In fact, the Italian aircraft's return to Sicily was observed and controlled without any difficulty by the radar up to 30 miles north of Gozo. The radar worked "perfectly" in tests.
According to the inquiry, however, two air traffic controllers on duty insisted they never observed the unidentified Italian aircraft and nor the short-term conflict alert warnings; there was nothing to indicate unknown traffic.
One source told The Times: "The air traffic controllers are unsatisfied with the way the equipment is recording radio and radar pictures.
"All controllers agree to this fact that the radar picture being recorded was not the same one available to the controller to enable him to do his work and separate the aircraft."
Furthermore, voice recordings taken during the incident confirm that the small plane only appeared on the radar seconds after the controllers were alerted by the Air Malta pilot, civil aviation sources said.
In the meantime, General Fabio Del Meglio, director general of the Aero Club D'Italia, confirmed that disciplinary proceedings against the pilot have started in Italy, but could not comment further.