Investigation into the case of an aircraft taking off without instructions at Noi Bai airport

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam is currently working with the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) to establish an investigation team to conduct a detailed inspection and verification of the extent and cause of the incident where two planes nearly collided at Noi Bai International Airport.

According to VATM reports, the incident occurred at Noi Bai International Airport at 9:20 p.m. on June 24 when Air Asia flight AIQ645 was on runway 11 right (11R) preparing to take off for Don Mueang Airport (Thailand).

At the same time, Vietjet Air flight (VJC943) took off from Taoyuan Airport (Taiwan) and prepared to land on runway 11L parallel to runway 11R.

The air traffic controller issued a clearance to the AIQ645 crew to take off and land, and flight VJC943 was allowed to cross runway 11R.

The crew of flight AIQ645 did not fully repeat the instructions and the air traffic controller did not detect this omission. Flight AIQ645 was taking off on runway 11R while flight VJC943 was taxiing across this runway.

At the time flight AIQ645 lifted its nose gear and took off from the ground between taxiways S5 and S6, flight VJC943 was at the intersection of runway 11R and taxiway S8. The distance from the center of taxiway S5 to the center of taxiway S8 is about 1,680m. Therefore, the distance AIQ645 took off from VJC943 was about 1,500m.

The air traffic controller detected the situation of flight AIQ645 taking off when the flight had reached a speed of 127 Knots. Realizing that the flight speed was close to the take-off decision speed, the air traffic controller did not give a take-off abort clearance.

Event - Investigation into the case of an aircraft taking off without instructions at Noi Bai airport — AirAsia is an airline based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

After receiving the information, Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) reported to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and decided to establish an internal investigation team led by the Head of the Quality Safety Department.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam immediately requested the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation to direct the Northern Air Traffic Management Company to temporarily remove from the flight control chain all shifts at Noi Bai air traffic control tower related to the incident to serve the investigation and verification to clarify the incident.

VATM also directed the Northern Air Traffic Management Company to immediately conduct a review of the incident for all air traffic controllers.

The internal investigation team has urgently collected relevant data records and worked with the flight operations crew to verify and clarify the flight operations of each individual on duty on June 24, 2023. Through initial assessment, the above incident occurred due to errors in the implementation of operational procedures by air traffic controllers.

In addition, the VATM Investigation and Verification Team will promptly complete the investigation and report the results to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam according to regulations .

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