Planes just 180 metres apart in 2007 near miss

A mid-air collision close to Malta's airport in April last year between a passenger jet and an ultralight aircraft was averted when the planes were just 180 metres apart, a preliminary report is expected to say.

Only quick thinking by the pilot of an Air Malta Boeing 737, making its final approach at the end of a flight from Rome with some 80 passengers on board, managed to prevent a potential disaster over a populated area two nautical miles away from Malta International Airport.

A report commissioned by the government to probe the incident is expected to point fingers at the Italian ultralight which entered Maltese airspace without a transponder and authorisation, and, to a certain extent, six local air traffic controllers on duty on April 21, 2007.

The findings are expected to anger air traffic controllers who are insisting that the processed radar picture presented to them on the day showed no trace of the Italian aircraft.

The report by the Bureau of Air Accident Investigation was presented to Communications Minister Austin Gatt in recent days, but it is not yet clear if and when it will be released. The chain of events which led to the near-miss began after the ultralight Storm aircraft flying from Lampedusa to Gela, encountered strong headwinds. The Italian pilot told investigators that the aircraft was running low on fuel and decided to make a technical stop in Malta for refuelling.

Sources told The Sunday Times that the Italian pilot said he made various unsuccessful attempts to establish radio contact with air traffic control. Then, as he approached Malta, he noted that his fuel gauge was critical and he switched on the aircraft Emergency Locator Transmitter. He claimed that since he could not find a suitable place to land, an emergency landing at MIA was his only option.

The Italian aircraft was at no time observed by controllers on approach or area radars and as a consequence entered Maltese controlled airspace undetected.

In the meantime, during the final stages of the approach, when breaking through cloud at approximately 1,300ft, the Air Malta pilot was shocked to see his aircraft on collision course with the ultralight.

The crew saw the small aircraft on their left hand side, "very close and just slightly higher", the sources said.

The Boeing 737 pilot took evasive action and executed a right turn, descending to 800 feet, followed by a climb. The Air Malta aircraft descended further, in order to avoid hitting the Storm with its left wing even though the aircraft was at such low altitude, the report is expected to show.

At the time, a 38-year-old passenger on board the flight had told The Times: "I had just spotted the Mosta church from the window seat and suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw a small blue plane alarmingly close."

The ultralight continued its approach and landed safely without appropriate clearance. The Boeing 737 was subsequently instructed to restart its approach and also touched down without further incident.

No flight plan had been filed by the Italian pilot and no radio contact was established. Furthermore, the ultralight did not have the correct radio communication frequencies and was transmitting on frequencies that had been replaced a few years before.

The Italian pilot told investigators that he had sent a fax to the Department of Civil Aviation in Malta a few days earlier in order to obtain permission to land in Malta for refuelling, if necessary. Permission for technical landing was issued a few days before the incident.

Although the Storm entered the airport area undetected, recovered radar traces subsequently showed that the radar plot indicated that the lateral trajectory of the ultralight started approximately 35 nautical miles from the airport.

However, despite being on the receiving end of some of the blame, air traffic controllers maintained they did not have any information about any light aircraft at the time.

All controllers also claim that no unidentified aircraft was observed on radar at any time before the incident and there was nothing unusual that might have led them to believe there was any unknown traffic in the vicinity.

It is only after the incident occurred that the aerodrome controller mentioned the presence of an aircraft on final approach with whom no radio contact had been established. The intercom conversation between two controllers also suggests that both controllers were shocked at the sudden appearance of the small aircraft.

The radar recordings show that the small aircraft was visible at approximately 35 nautical miles, the report is expected to say. The sources said that tests carried out by two software engineers showed that the radar was functioning properly at the time, a claim dismissed by the controllers.

Controllers insist that the recordings are not what they actually saw on their screens, and that the raw radar picture is processed and filtered before being presented on all six screens.

The report is expected to say there is no explanation why the small aircraft's presence was recorded and yet not seen on the radar display at the time of the incident. However, a plausible explanation is that the recorded picture is an unfiltered image, whereas the radar picture presented to the controller is filtered to remove unwanted clutter.

The Italian aircraft was allowed by the Department of Civil Aviation to leave just two hours after the incident, a decision which drew criticism at the time.