Created Tuesday, Feb 16th 2021 18:42Z, last updated Friday, Feb 19th 2021 16:00Z
A Wizz Air Airbus A320-200, registration HA-LPT performing flight W6-1686 from Katowice (Poland) to Split (Croatia), was climbing out of Katowice's runway 27 when the crew could not retract the landing gear, stopped the climb at 6000 feet and decided to return to Katowice. The aircraft was cleared to land back on runway 27, however, in the meantime the sole controller on duty had cleared a repair team with vehicles and workers to enter the runway and had forgotten about that repair team. About 90 seconds later, while the aircraft was on short final the controller realized the runway was still occupied and instructed the aircraft to go around. The crew complied, climbed to 4000 feet, positioned for another approach and landed safely on runway 27 about 22 minutes after departure and about 10 minutes after the go around.
Poland's ULC (Civil Aviation Authority) was told the controller was combining the duties of controller and assistant, working alone in the control room, but had not received training or had otherwise been prepared for solo operation. That way an important safety barrier was lost, because a second person monitoring the controller (4 eyes principle) was no longer able to catch errors. At the time the traffic at the aerodrome was low, only one other aircraft - training aircraft - was operating in the control area.
Related Flight:
W61686,
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