Qantas 737 and Jetstar A320 in dangerous midnight runway mix up

The ATSB has launched an investigation after a Qantas 737 was in the process of leaving Darwin Airport at the same time as a Jetstar A320 was preparing to land on the same runway. The incident significantly occurred at 12:17 am on Wednesday when the air traffic control tower was closed. Images from Flightradar24, above, appear to show the outbound aircraft taking a significant detour from its usual route to avoid a collision. In a statement released on Friday, the ATSB said it would examine “all available evidence” to determine the extent of the communication between the two narrowbody passenger planes. “A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation,” it said. “Should a critical safety issue be identified during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify relevant partie so that appropriate safety action can be taken.” The statement is yet to clarify exactly how far into the take-off the Qantas 737 was, but it did state the incident is considered an “aircraft separation issue”. Flightradar24 lists the outbound aircraft’s actual time of departure as 12:47 am and the inbound plane’s landing time as 12:59 am. It comes just a month after Australian Aviation reported how the ATSB would monitor the introduction of new take-off procedures at Sydney Airport after a British Airways 787 and Qantas A330 flew too close to each other in September last year.<br/>