Airprox Incident Airbus A380-842 A6-EVG, Wednesday 31 May 2023

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Date:	Wednesday 31 May 2023
Time:	20:21 UTC
Type:	Airbus A380-842
Owner/operator:	Emirates
Registration:	A6-EVG
MSN:	256
Year of manufacture:	2018
Engine model:	Rolls-Royce Trent 972-84
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants:
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	None
Category:	Incident
Location:	Colombo FIR - Indian Ocean
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Dubai Airport (DXB/OMDB)
Destination airport:	Sydney-Kingsford Smith International Airport, NSW (SYD/YSSY)
Investigating agency:	CAASL
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Emirates flight UAE5CL (Airbus A380, A6-EVG) en-route to Dubai, UAE from Sydney, Australia on the air route L896, maintaining FL360, entered Colombo Flight Information Region (FIR) via the reporting point NISOK at time 2000 UTC. Emirates flight UAE359 (Boeing 777-300ER, A6-EGI), which was en-route to Dubai, UAE from Jakarta, Indonesia following the same air route L896, maintaining FL340 also entered Colombo Flight Information via the reporting point NISOK at time 2003 UTC. At time 2021 UTC, when both the aircraft were flying relative to each other maintaining minimum standard vertical separation of 2000ft, UAE359 had requested to climb to higher Level FL360, to the same flight level that UAE5CL, the preceding aircraft was maintaining. ATCO had granted the flight level requested by UAE359 and the aircraft acknowledged and climbed to FL360. This caused a deviation in the minimum vertical separation standard to exist between the two aircraft. Approximately 11 minutes later with the ADS update the controller had noticed that both aircraft were maintaining the same flight level without the adequate longitudinal separation, which should have been 50 nautical miles. The controller on realising this, had descended UAE359 to FL340 once more to establish vertical separation.

Cause: Momentary loss of concentration and the consequent loss of situational awareness by the controller.

Accident investigation: