Cathay Pacific Airways said a loss of separation incident that occurred on 18 September between one of its Boeing 777-300ERs and an Airbus A330 that was operated by its subsidiary Dragonair presented "no risk of collision" after both crews responded to traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) warnings.
Cathay Pacific flight CX841 from New York and Dragonair KA433 from Kaoshiung were holding approximately 40nm (74km) southwest of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at around 13:00 local time after adverse weather conditions caused extensive delays at the airport. The bad weather caused the aircraft to be restricted to narrow tracks when descending in the hold, Cathay said.
"The CX841 and KA433 aircraft were at the same altitude southwest of HKIA when a loss of separation resulted," the airline said.
"The pilots of the two aircraft properly responded to their respective TCAS warnings and advisories, with KA433 climbing and CX841 descending immediately to resolve the conflict and maintain appropriate separation," the airline added.
Both aircraft landed safely shortly before 14:00 local time.
"At the closest, they were one nautical mile apart when abeam from each other with increasing vertical separation," Cathay said
Both aircraft's TCAS equipment generated appropriate alerts and the pilots took immediate action to maintain adequate separation," the carrier added.
The airline has reported the incident to Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department.
The adverse weather conditions during the afternoon on 18 September led to eight Cathay Pacific flights having to divert to Taipei, Kaoshiung, Macau and Guangzhou, with their arrivals at HKIA delayed by approximately two to three hours.
In addition, two freighter services and a passenger flight from London declared fuel emergencies while at the requested holding position.
A freighter diverted to Macau, while the other two flights landed at HKIA.
"All landed without incident with sufficient spare fuel ranging from 30-50 minutes of flight," Cathay said.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
