Spanish investigators have disclosed that a Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A320neo abandoned its approach to Malaga after a conflict with firefighting aircraft operating in the vicinity. Investigation authority CIAIAC says the SAS twinjet had been inbound to runway 12 on 6 July.
Several regions of Spain, Andalusia among them, have been badly affected by wildfire this season. Two aircraft, one of them a Pegasus Aviacion Air Tractor AT-802, had been conducting firefighting operations over the Sierra de Grazalema park in Cadiz province. They were returning to Cartama heliport to refill with water and fire retardant when the encounter occurred.
According to the inquiry's preliminary findings, both firefighting aircraft entered the Malaga controlled traffic zone without being able to establish communication with air traffic control. That is the crux of the occurrence: an airliner on a stabilised approach met traffic that the controllers working the arrival could not talk to.
0.8nm and the same altitude
The A320neo crew were instructed to take action by the jet's collision-avoidance system, triggered by the presence of the Air Tractor. CIAIAC's provisional analysis shows both aircraft were at the same altitude and were horizontally separated by 0.8nm.
After resolving the conflict, the A320neo crew aborted the approach and made a second, successful landing attempt at Malaga a few minutes later, by which time the Air Tractor had also landed. CIAIAC identifies the A320neo involved as EI-SIG and the Air Tractor as EC-JTF. None of the occupants of either aircraft was injured.
A go-around in these circumstances is the system working rather than failing. The collision-avoidance equipment fitted to airliners is designed precisely for traffic that is not in the controller's loop, and the crew's decision to discontinue the approach and re-position rather than press on is the textbook response. The uncomfortable part is upstream of the flight deck: firefighting aircraft transiting a busy terminal area without a working radio link is a coordination problem, not a piloting one.
A wider European pattern
Wildfire suppression flying has produced a run of serious occurrences across Europe this season. A mid-air collision between two Bell 214STs near Psatha, Greece, on 2 August was fatal. Italian investigators are separately analysing a 10 July occurrence in which a De Havilland CL-415's wing was damaged.
The common thread is airspace rather than airmanship. Firefighting operations are inherently improvised: aircraft are launched at short notice, work low over terrain that has no fixed procedures, and shuttle repeatedly between a fire and a refill point that may sit close to, or inside, controlled airspace serving commercial traffic. During a heavy fire season those shuttle runs multiply, and each one is an opportunity for a track to cross an arrival stream.
Malaga is a busy Mediterranean airport with dense summer traffic, and the Cartama heliport sits within reach of its terminal area. CIAIAC's findings so far are provisional; a final report will set out whether procedural changes, better pre-coordination or a dedicated communications arrangement for firefighting sorties are recommended.
For now the occurrence stands as a reminder that the busiest weeks for European holiday traffic increasingly overlap with the busiest weeks for aerial firefighting, and that the two activities share the same sky.
Sources: FlightGlobal. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
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