Kraków Air Traffic Incident Involving Piper PA-28 and Airbus A319 (SP-TUT)

Incident Overview On 15 October 2019, an incident occurred in the Kraków control zone and terminal maneuvering area involving a Piper PA-28R-201 Arrow III, registration SP-TUT, and an Airbus A319100, registration G-EZIY. Both aircraft were operating under instrument flight rules. ## Sequence of Events At 15:10 local time, the Piper was on approach for a low pass over runway 07 at EPKK. The Kraków approach controller passed the Piper to the EPKK tower controller with an instruction to climb to 4,000 ft AMSL. After the low pass, the tower controller issued the Airbus clearance to occupy runway 07 and, at 15:14, issued the takeoff clearance. At that time, the Piper had reached 2,000 ft AMSL. During the incident, traffic at EPKK was heavy. A helicopter landed between the Piper's low pass and the Airbus's takeoff, and another passenger aircraft was about 10 NM from the airport on the landing final. The tower controller later contacted approach and heard that the Piper would soon be given a heading change to avoid blocking departures on the runway heading. The tower controller did not inform approach about the departing Airbus and did not stop the takeoff. When the Airbus appeared on the approach radar, the Piper was still climbing on the runway heading and had reached 2,600 ft AMSL. The faster Airbus was closing on the Piper ahead. After establishing communications, the Airbus crew told the approach controller that it observed the Piper ahead. The approach controller then instructed the Piper to turn immediately right to a heading of 160° and the Airbus to turn left to a heading of 360°. ## Separation and Outcome The minimum separation between the aircraft was 2.01 NM horizontally and 400 ft vertically, compared with required minima of 5 NM and 1,000 ft. When both aircraft were at 3,500 ft AMSL, they were 2.9 NM apart, and the separation was increasing as a result of the heading changes.