Incident Overview
On 22 April 2020, a Robinson R44 helicopter, registered as SP-DHAIL, was involved in an incident at Warsaw Chopin Airport (EPWA) during a private flight from Mistrzewice near Sochaczew to Obory near Konstancin. The pilot requested and received clearance to enter the CTR of Warsaw-Okecie and subsequently asked the tower for permission to perform a low pass over the runway.
Sequence of Events
Initially, the pilot was instructed to fly to VFR point R. Meanwhile, the Airport Duty Officer requested to occupy taxiway A for an inspection of runway 15/33 from threshold 15 to 33. The tower controller cleared the Duty Officer to occupy threshold 15 after an aircraft departed from runway 33. The helicopter pilot then received clearance to proceed from VFR R to VFR W and hold for approximately three minutes.
Subsequently, the tower controller issued the instruction: "I authorize to enter right circuit for runway 15." The pilot entered final approach for runway 15 near the intersection of the runway and taxiway D. At that time, the Duty Officer's vehicle was near taxiway S2. According to the pilot's statement, the helicopter was abeam the vehicle on the right-south side of the runway.
Altitude data from the SDD indicator of the P_21 system showed that the helicopter was at an absolute altitude between 700 and 600 feet, corresponding to a relative height averaging 103 to 73 meters. Later, the helicopter descended to 400 feet absolute, giving an average relative height of about 12 meters. The pilot did not receive any information from the tower about the vehicle on the runway, and the instruction to enter the right circuit left discretion to the pilot in building the circuit.
Abeam the Cargo Terminal, the pilot was informed by the tower that he did not have clearance to occupy and take off from runway 15. The pilot continued the flight and landed at Obory near Konstancin. In a subsequent telephone conversation, the pilot explained that he understood the instruction as clearance to occupy runway 15 and perform a low pass.
Cause and Contributing Factors
The investigation determined that the cause of the incident was a misunderstanding by the pilot of the instruction issued by the tower controller. A contributing circumstance was the lack of information provided to the pilot about the movement of the Duty Officer's vehicle on runway 15.