Challenger 300 hits a runway vehicle at Subang, 2019

Final reportRunway incursionNight

The short version

On the night of 18 March 2019 the tower at Subang Airport, near Kuala Lumpur, cleared a painting crew and an escort vehicle onto runway 15. Two controller handovers later, the controller on duty believed the runway was empty and cleared 9M-TST to land. The jet hit the stationary escort vehicle about 1,200 m from the threshold, and the driver died the next day.

What happened

  1. The tower clears a vehicle onto the runway 15 threshold area for lighting work. It talks to the tower on walkie-talkie.

  2. An escort vehicle and a contractor's painting vehicle with three workers are cleared onto the runway to paint the centreline. The contractor's vehicle has no way to talk to the tower.

  3. First handover in the tower. The outgoing controller passes on the work in progress: one lighting vehicle and two painting vehicles on the runway.

  4. The lighting vehicle asks to vacate. The controller logs that all vehicles have left. The two painting vehicles are still on the runway.

  5. Second handover. Working from the log, the outgoing controller reports no runway work. No work-in-progress strip is on the console.

  6. 9M-TST calls nine miles final for the ILS. The controller looks out at the runway, sees nothing unusual and clears the aircraft to land on 118.2 MHz.

  7. Just before touchdown, the painting crew see the landing light, drive off the runway and flash their headlights at the escort vehicle, which is stationary about 120 m behind them. It does not respond. They stop at taxiway Foxtrot.

  8. The aircraft lands. Decelerating through 90 to 100 kt, the crew feel an impact.

All times are local.

The aircraft stopped abeam taxiway Foxtrot. The cabin crew reported heavy damage to the left wing. The flight deck had no abnormal indications, so the captain taxied to Bay 38. Fire and rescue reached the vehicle at 0321 and had to cut the driver's door off to get him out. He was taken to hospital at 0341 and was pronounced dead on 19 March.1

It was a clear night. The pilot reported more than 10 km visibility on final and no weather. The painting workers said the escort vehicle's amber beacon was on the whole time. Neither the controller nor the pilot saw it, and it does not show on the tower CCTV.1

Why it happened

  1. The report gives one probable cause: incorrect information about vehicle activity on the runway was handed to the controller taking over, and that led to a landing clearance being issued without the controller realising the runway was occupied.1

  2. The crew were properly licensed, and the landing was legitimate because the tower had cleared it.

  3. All four controllers on the shift were qualified and licensed. Between 0001 and 0600 the tower ran a "Break Shift", with one controller on position for each 1.5-hour rotation. That arrangement is not published in any official ATC document.

  4. The log entry at 0215 recorded every vehicle as clear when two were still on the runway. No work-in-progress reminder was placed at the console.

  5. Vehicles on the runway talked to the tower by walkie-talkie, as agreed between Malaysia Airports and the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM). Those calls were not recorded, and the aircraft could not hear them. ICAO Doc 9870 recommends that vehicles on the runway use the same VHF frequency as aircraft.

  6. Investigators could not determine how bright the escort vehicle's beacon was, because the roof, beacon and switches were destroyed. No minimum beacon intensity is written down for vehicles on the manoeuvring area. The report could not establish why the escort vehicle had stopped 120 m behind the painting vehicle.

The report makes three recommendations. CAAM should account for fatigue when it sets tower manning, especially in quiet hours, and publish any change. Malaysia Airports and CAAM should put vehicles on the manoeuvring area on VHF with ATC. They should also write a procedure for those vehicles that covers beacon intensity and phraseology between drivers and controllers.1

What a crew can take from it

  1. A landing clearance tells you what the controller believes. At Subang the controller looked out, saw nothing and cleared the jet. His picture of the runway came from a log entry made by someone else 53 minutes earlier. The clearance was legitimate, and the runway was still occupied. Late at night at a quiet field, assume works may be going on until you have seen the runway yourself.

  2. Read the NOTAMs and ATIS for night works, then ask. If there is any hint of runway or lighting work, ask on first contact: "Confirm runway 15 clear of all vehicles and works." It costs one transmission. It also makes the controller check again, possibly with someone who was not on position when the work started.

  3. You will not hear the vehicles. At Subang the vehicles were on walkie-talkie and the aircraft was on 118.2. Nothing the crew heard on frequency could have told them a car was on the runway. At many airports ground vehicles use a separate channel, so a quiet frequency does not mean an empty runway.

  4. Use the lights and look down the runway from short final. Landing and taxi lights on, and the pilot monitoring looks at the runway surface ahead as well as at the approach lights and PAPI. A dark vehicle sitting on the centreline is hard to pick out against the edge lights. A small, dim beacon can be lost among the runway lights. If anything on the runway looks odd, go around. You can sort it out on downwind.

  5. After an impact, stop and think before you taxi. The crew here stopped, got a report from the cabin and had no abnormal indications before taxiing in. Work in that order: find out what you hit, look at fuel and hydraulics, and get fire and rescue to look at the aircraft before you move it on a damaged wing.

Study it on the course

Sources

  1. Air Accident Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Transport Malaysia. Final Report A 02/19, Bombardier BD100-1A10 9M-TST, Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang, 18 March 2019. Issued 2 December 2020.
  2. SKYbrary, CL30 / Vehicle, Subang Malaysia, 2019.
  3. Aviation Safety Network, occurrence 319467.
  4. Aerossurance, Fatal ATC Handover: A Business Jet Collides with an Airport Vehicle on Landing.
  5. AIN, Challenger 300 Strikes, Kills Malaysian Airport Worker, 25 March 2019.
  6. Malay Mail, 19 April 2019.

Last updated 22 October 2026

For study only. Always use the approved AFM, QRH and operator procedures.