On Sunday morning, November 20, hours after resuming operations after clearing the runway, Lima Airport Partners issued a statement describing the actions that played a significant role in the collision of an Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) fire engine and a LATAM Peru‘s Airbus A320neo.
In the statement, the concessionaire of Jorge Chavez airport indicates that on November 18, the Rescue team was performing a drill called Response Time, which seeks to prove that firefighters can respond to an emergency on the runway in no more than three minutes.
LAP clarifies that the exercise was coordinated with the Air Traffic Authority (CORPAC – Corporación Peruana de Aeropuertos y Aviación Comercial), and the time and date for the activity was set to November 18, between 15:00 and 16:00 local time.
According to the Lima Airport Partners statement, during Friday morning the firefighting team carried out «all the necessary coordination» to execute the maneuver. CORPAC confirmed the start time for 15:10, when the drill began.
The impact with the CC-BHB occurred one minute later, 15:11 local time. The concessionaire closes its statement indicating that it «highlights the work of our aeronautical firefighters, who carried out the exercise with prior authorization and in accordance with current aeronautical regulations» and emphasizes that it will continue to «collaborate with the authorities in charge» to clarify what happened.
CORPAC: Fire truck was not authorized to enter runway
The president of CORPAC, Jorge Salinas Cerreño, said that the ARFF was authorized to carry out a scheduled exercise minutes before the aircraft was scheduled to take off, but that it was not authorized to enter a restricted area «where takeoffs take place».
During a press conference that also included the Peruvian Vice Minister of Transportation, the Director of the DGAC, the President of the Aviation Accident Investigation Commission and representatives of the airport concessionaire, Salinas indicated that what remains to be clarified is why the firefighters entered the active runway, when it is established in the protocol that the vehicle must travel a parallel runway at a distance of 70 meters. The firefighting vehicle approached up to fifty meters and the impact occurred.
«(The firefighters) entered the active runway exceeding all limits. This is a case of unauthorized runway incursion. We do not know if the causes were human, mechanical or of another nature,» said CORPAC’s president.
«The exercise was scheduled to be carried out outside the area of operations. The exercises are scheduled by the concessionaire company, Lima Airport Partners, and they bring it to the attention of the tower personnel,» he added.
«Despite the fact that there are signage and established limits, all those elements were exceeded. We cannot speculate about what happened. I’m not going to speculate. What we do know is that it was a scheduled exercise and that it was a case of unauthorized runway incursion, and we don’t know the cause. That will be determined by the ongoing investigation,» concluded Salinas.
