Near mid- air Collision - again

A Danish Civilian Airliner flown by Cimber Air, flying a Scandinavian Airlines System Flight, was close to disaster. Flight SK 1755 was bound for Poznan in Poland.
The incident happened soon after take off from Copenhagen international Airport, Kastrup in Denmark on Friday 2014.12.11.

The Airliner was climbing out from Copenhagen airport when a Russian military spy plane was flying in the area, circling in and out of the flight path for arriving and departing traffic to Kastrup.

The Russian military plane was flying without an activated Transponder, and it was thus invisible on the Civilian Radar.

Swedish Air Force Primary Radars picked up the plane and notified the Civilian Air Traffic Controllers that instructed the Civilian Airliner to level out to avoid a collision.

The incident took place in International airspace at an altitude of 8000 m, around 50 km South West of Malmoe. The weather conditions were fine.

The Russian News agency Itar Tass, says that the planes were at a distance of 70 km.

The Chief of the Swedish Air Force, Micael Bydén, calls the Russian statement absurd. It is strange, he says, and add that we know how close they were.

He does not want to comment on the exact distance between the two planes, but he says that the planes were much closer than the stipulated 9 km.

We are not talking about hundreds of m, but far from 9 km, he says.

Both Swedish and Danish Fighter planes were following the Russian aircraft, that left the area after a while, but it was soon to to return to the area again, flying without a Transponder.

The Government of Sweden and Denmark have summoned the respective Russian ambassadors to protest against this behavior.

This type of Russian military activity, the old Soviet Style, Cold War display of dominance and aggression that threatens western civilian air traffic has lately become a common practice.

Last week such activity was reported close to Finnish airspace, and Finnish ATC had to take actions to avoid collisions.

The Danish minister of defense, Nicolai Wammen, says that Denmark looks very seriously on the incident. It is very important that all nations, including Russia, takes aviation safety seriously, he says.

This is the second time this year that a Scandinavian Airlines System Civilian Airliner is close to collide with an unmarked Russian military spy plane.

A similar incident took place on March 3, 2014, that too after take off from Copenhagen.

The Swedish Captain of the SAS Civilian Airliner, Johan Wiklund, says that the ATC, Air Traffic Control, had warned another Airliner about the Russian aircraft.

I had just begun the climb, he says, when the ATC called us and instructed us to abort the climb and to level out.

I had just aborted the climb when I looked out and then I saw it on the right side, he says.

I counted to five and then it passed right over our heads, the Captain says.

He and the first officer on the flight estimate that the distance between them and the Russian plane was only around 90 m. The minimal separation is 300 m.

The Chief of the Swedish Air Force says that it is extremely foolish to fly "invisible" without a transponder. The problem is that you put other people at risk, he says.

Source: / Aftonbladet / TT / TV4 / SVT / Dagens Nyheter / Ritzau

All flights Cancelled at BRU

All flights are cancelled today, 2014.12.15, at Brussels International Airport, due to a strike.
(IATA: BRU, ICAO: EBBR) (Brussel Nationaal / Bruxelles-National / Brussel-Zaventem / Brussels National).


More info for BRU