Serious incident to the De Havilland DHC-6 registered PJ-WIX operated by Winair and the Pilatus PC12 registered N590TW operated by Tradewind Aviation on 29/01/2025 at Saint Barthelemy AD

Around one hour before Saint-Barthélemy airport closed, the crew of N590TW and then the crew of PJ-WIX, both on arrival to the airport, contacted the AFIS officer. Seven other arriving or departing aeroplanes transmitted on the frequency in the ten minutes preceding the
serious incident.

The crew of PJ-WIX joined the RH base leg for runway 28 after extending the downwind leg with the intention of ensuring separation with N590TW which was preceding them on the LH base leg. In the base leg, the crew of PJ-WIX had visual contact with N590TW and then continued the approach by turning onto the final, only approximately 40 s after the latter.

At about the same time, the AFIS officer informed the crew of PJ-WIX that N590TW was still on the runway. The presence of another aeroplane at the holding point of taxiway “A” prevented the crew of N590TW from vacating via this taxiway which is the one usually taken to reach the
“main” parking.

In his message, the AFIS officer, aware of this situation, did not provide traffic information concerning the aeroplane at holding point “A”, this procedure not being set out in the Operations Manual. In his message, he indicated to the crew of PJ-WIX that the crew of N590TW has to vacate the runway via taxiway “D” which leads to the “general aviation” parking. He was not aware of the intentions of the crew of N590TW and his prerogatives as AFIS officer did not allow him to order them to vacate via “D” nor to ask the crew of PJ-WIX to carry out a missed approach. The crew of N590TW were not aware of the immediate proximity of the aeroplane that was following them.

During the final approach, the sun, slightly to the LH side of the runway axis and the shadow at the end of the runway probably prevented the crew of PJ-WIX from correctly seeing N590TW on the ground. The crew of the latter, without transmitting a message, carried out a U-turn to backtrack the runway with the intention of vacating via “B” to head to the main parking. When the AFIS officer transmitted a second time, information about an aeroplane present on the runway without specifying that it had made a U-turn, the crew of PH-WIX had reached EDEN ROCK which constitutes a decision point beyond which the approach cannot be rejected. The crew of PJ-WIX continued the approach without being certain that the runway would be vacant before they landed: the operator’s procedures did not specify that the crew should carry out a missed approach if the runway was engaged when abeam EDEN ROCK. They landed while N590TW was still on the runway, although its crew had accelerated taxiing after the U-turn to vacate the runway as quickly as possible.