In a response sent to the Lusa agency, NAV says that it “was immediately aware of the incident that occurred last Monday [June 26]”, through the incident reporting system, adding that it informed the Accident Prevention and Investigation Office with Aircraft and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) and the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC).

Aeronautical sources explained to Lusa that it was a “serious incident, which only had no other consequences because the pilot of the Ryanair Boeing 737, coming from Barcelona, alerted the controller to the presence of another plane on the runway”, an A321neo from airline SATA, which was waiting for authorisation to take off towards Porto Santo. The pilot then aborted landing until the runway was clear.

“NAV Portugal opened an internal investigation into this incident, and is currently collecting the necessary elements for the preparation of its report”.