Planes narrowly avoided collision at Melbourne airport after runway shortened, report finds

Length of runway was temporarily shortened by 1500m to allow for night-time resurfacing works

Two passenger planes nearly collided with construction workers and vehicles at the Melbourne airport in 2023 in two separate incidents as the staff were not aware that the runway had been temporarily shortened, a report concluded.

The pilots of two international airlines were not aware that the length of a particular runway had been temporarily shortened by over 1500m to allow for night-time resurfacing works, an Australian body for transport safety found.

The final report comes two years after two large airliners – Malaysia Airlines and Bamboo Airways – narrowly avoided collision with airport staff at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport just 11 days apart.

On 7 September 2023, a Malaysia Airlines Airbus A330-300 with 247 passengers onboard overshot the end of runway while taking off to fly to Kuala Lumpur, passing less than seven metres above workers and vehicles.

Just 11 days later, a Bamboo Airways Boeing 787-9 bound for Hanoi also overran the runway, avoiding hitting the workers by 4.5m.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released its final report on Tuesday, finding that both airlines’ dispatchers included the reduced runway length in calculations but did not highlight it to the crews, since take-off was still possible within limits using proper thrust settings.

A visual impression of Bamboo Airways flight close to impacting the temporary landing lights (ATSB)

It found that both crews used reduced-thrust take-offs – a process in which less than the maximum available engine thrust is used for takeoff – assuming the full runway was available. It was a “critical misunderstanding” that led to the dangerous overruns, the report said.

“These were serious incidents,” the ATSB chief commissioner, Angus Mitchell, said.

“In both cases we had a fully loaded and fuelled aircraft with over 200 personnel on board coming within metres of fixed equipment on the ground and with works equipment. So it was by luck in this case that we didn’t have an impact.”

While acknowledging that it was the pilot’s responsibility to identify safety-critical aeronautical information when preparing for a flight Mr Mitchell noted that the process is susceptible to human error.

In light of the incidents, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has proposed changes requiring air traffic control to more directly confirm pilots’ awareness of safety-critical runway conditions.