Incident Overview
Description
On the evening of 27 December 2001 A TAM Airbus A330 was planning a departure from Zurich via Frankfurt to S?o Paulo. At about the same time Crossair flight CRX874, an Avro RJ100, was preparing for departure to London City Airport. The Avro RJ100 taxied from the stand via taxiway A to remote de-icing position east for a de-icing procedure. Since the remote de-icing area east was still occupied by two aircraft, the crew could only partially roll the aircraft into the by-pass area RWY28. The TAM Airbus A330 was de-iced at the gate B33 and rolled via taxiway A to the holding point for runway 28. In the area of the junction of taxiway A and the remote de-icing position east the right wingtip of the Airbus A330 collided with the vertical tail of the waiting Crossair RJ100. The crew of the RJ100, which was waiting with parking brake set, felt a shock of their aircraft, whereupon the commander saw the rolling Airbus 330-200 passing on the left. Assuming that the wing of the TAM airplane had grazed the Crossair plane, the crew of CRX874 immediately informed Zurich Tower at the appropriate frequency. The crew of the TAM A330-200 did not notice anything of the collision and was alerted by the call on the TWR frequency that they might have had a collision with another aircraft. The TAM crew then taxied back to gate B33. Causes: The collision occurred because the crew of the rolling TAM8071 did not realize that CRX874, which had stopped on the right side of the taxiway, had not yet fully rolled into the ‘standby for deicing’ position and the available space is insufficient to allow a plane of the size of an A330-200 to pass. To the incident may have contributed: – Possible distraction of the copilot of TAM8071, responsible for obstacle clearance on the right side, by the frequency change to the TWR frequency.
Primary Cause
Failure of TAM8071 to recognize CRX874’s position and the lack of sufficient space to allow the A330 to pass through the by-pass area.Failure of TAM8071 to recognize CRX874’s position and the lack of sufficient space to allow the A330 to pass through the by-pass area.Share on:
