TCAS saved the day

2 Vietnam Airlines pilots have licenses withdrawn after near miss

The two are the chief and deputy chief pilots of Flight 320 that flew from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on August 7.

That flight was conducted on a plane coded HVN1203 of the Vietnamese national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

When the plane was flying through the sky of Ho Chi Minh City, it received an order of the local air traffic control station to travel at flight level 320 (32,000 feet) to avoid another VietJet Air plane that was flying in the opposite direction.

But the two pilots mistakenly navigated their aircraft down to flight level 300, exposing itself to a risk of hitting the VietJet Air plane.

The collision warning systems of both planes were immediately activated, requesting them to follow instructions to help avoid a collision.

After an investigation, the CAAV concluded that the pilots of the HVN1203 plane violated the standard on minimum separation between flying aircraft, presenting a high-level threat to flight safety.

Deputy chief of the CAAV Dinh Viet Thang initially signed decisions to revoke the licenses of the two pilots for three months. However, the penalty was later stiffened to an indefinite revocation.

"The two pilots will be re-trained. When the CAAV recognizes that they are qualified for resuming work, the agency will re-license them," Thang told VnExpress newswire.