Image: Ari Vihanta / Yle

A seriously dangerous situation occurred at Kokkola-Pietarsaari Airport on Finland’s west coast on Thursday morning. A plane arriving from Sweden landed on a runway without permission. The Safety Investigation Authority has launched a probe.



“As far as we understand, air traffic control had ordered the plane to ascend, but it landed nevertheless,” says Veli-Pekka Nurmi, director of the Safety Investigation Authority of Finland.

The Swedish corporate jet was in private use, carrying four passengers and crew. It touched down near a large machine that was working on the runway. Another machine was also close by.

The Safety Investigation Authority says that there was apparently one person operating each of the ground vehicles.

Nurmi describes the situation as “extremely serious”. If the aircraft had collided with one or both of the vehicles, it would have caused major damage.

At the time, there was poor weather at the airport, with visibility of only some 600 metres.

Half-year investigation likely

Nurmi notes that there were two near-misses on runways at Helsinki Airport in late January, which the safety board is now investigating.

“The world’s most serious aviation accidents have involved these kinds of runway incidents, and that is why we must work to prevent them,” Nurmi tells Yle.

The Safety Investigation Authority says its probe will probably take about six months to complete.

The airport is located in Kronoby (Kruunupyy), some 20 kilometres from Kokkola and 30 from Jakobstad (known as Pietarsaari in Finnish), and due east of the Swedish city of Umeå.