Aeronautical sources told Lusa agency that the incident occurred at 8:30 am on Monday, June 3, when the control tower authorised a Sata Internacional A320neo, bound for Porto, to line up and take off on the runway, when they had already authorised a Dash8-400, operated by Sata Internacional, coming from Madeira, to land on the opposite runway.

According to the same source, this type of incident “is very serious because the safety barriers on the part of air traffic control failed, and the chain of events that could have led to an accident was saved by the professionalism of the crew” of the A320neo, “ who realised the controller's error” and alerted him immediately.

According to the company responsible for air traffic management, “following the authorisation, and following the request for confirmation from the pilot of the aircraft who started to roll onto the apron/runway”, the control tower “immediately corrected the authorisation issued, instructing the waiting in the waiting position before entering the track”.

NAV emphasises that “at no time did the aircraft interfere with the runway protection area, and the operation took place in complete safety”.

“Nevertheless, as is the practice of NAV Portugal's security culture, the occurrence was reported to the security event management system and subsequently an internal investigation process was opened with a view to analysing it, and we are currently collecting the elements necessary to prepare your report”, indicates NAV.

The company says that “the occurrence was promptly reported by the usual means to the safety and regulatory authorities, the GPIAAF [Office of Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents] and ANAC [National Civil Aviation Authority”.

“The GPIAAF confirms that it received, from the air navigation service provider, a report regarding an occurrence of a possible runway incursion at Ponta Delgada airport. Additional data was requested from NAV in order to evaluate the incident and determine whether there is a reason to open an investigation. The GPIAAF awaits the requested information”, states the response sent to Lusa.

On June 26, 2023, an identical incident occurred at Porto Airport, when the tower authorised the landing of a plane, while on the runway there was another aircraft waiting to take off, with NAV concluding that the occurrence was due to “human error ”.

In December 2022, the GPIAAF detected serious and systemic failures in air traffic control at Porto and Ponta Delgada airports, which authorized take-offs and landings when vehicles were still carrying out inspection or maintenance of the runway.

In the final report on these two incidents, the GPIAAF issued several safety recommendations to ANAC and five to NAV.

NAV says that two of the recommendations have already been implemented and “closed by GPIAAF”, adding that the other three “are in the implementation phase” and their closure “is dependent on investments in ground surveillance systems and automatic detection of conflicts already acquired and scheduled to come into operation in 2025”.

ANAC did not respond to Lusa's questions.