Summary
An incident occurred on Saturday, 28 May 2022 at 10:32 UTC within the Palma Aerodrome Transit Zone (ATZ) involving two aircraft: a Boeing 737-8AS operated by Ryanair (registration EI-EKR, callsign RYR1U) and a Cirrus SF-50 (registration N66HR, callsign N66HR).
Flight History
Aircraft RYR1U was conducting a scheduled commercial passenger flight. It took off from runway 24R at Palma de Mallorca Airport (LEPA) and was in initial climb. Aircraft N66HR was en route from Mallorca-Son Bonet Airport (LESB). The flight paths of the two aircraft converged, and RYR1U performed a manoeuvre to avoid N66HR.
At their closest point, the horizontal distance between the aircraft was 0.65 nautical miles, and the vertical distance was 116 feet. RYR1U was at 1,116 ft AMSL with a ground speed of 175 knots, while N66HR was at 1,000 ft AMSL with a ground speed of at least 200 knots.
The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) on RYR1U did not issue a resolution advisory because TCAS is inhibited below 1,000 feet of radio altimeter.
Personnel and Aircraft Information
Aircraft RYR1U had 6 crew members and 181 passengers on board; all were reported unharmed. Aircraft N66HR had a single pilot, also unharmed. No damage was reported to either aircraft.
Investigation
The investigation determined that the incident was caused by the unauthorised presence of aircraft N66HR within the Palma ATZ due to deficient flight planning. Contributing factors included the pilot of N66HR's lack of knowledge and skills for the flight, inadequate management of the perceived problem, failure to comply with VFR communications procedures within the Palma TMA, and inadequate language proficiency.
The report contains no safety recommendations.