The Air Accident Investigation Unit Ireland has revealed that two student pilots suffered near misses at Cork Airport as both of their planes took off at the same time.
One solo student pilot had taken off without permission.
The terrifying near miss happened in the south of the country on May 2017 and the report found that a Cessna 172, EI-CUJ, with a solo student pilot on board, had been given clearance to travel onto a secondary runway and stay there.
As well as this, another plane (Cessna, G-GFSA) was given take-off clearance on the adjoining main runway.
However, as the second plane began to take off, the first became “airborne from RWY 25 without clearance”.
The miscommunication happened because the student was unable to hear and fully understand the instructions from the radio tower.
“The student only realised that G-GFSA had become airborne when he observed it more or less parallel to him on his right-hand side heading north.
“While he stated he was aware that G-GFSA had lined up on RWY 35 he could not recollect hearing it receiving a take-off clearance.”
“EI-CUJ commenced its take-off roll approximately 34 seconds after G-GFSA was cleared to take off. Because of the time delay between each aircraft commencing its take-off roll, there was no actual risk of collision.”
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