Planes in near miss after NZ air controller 'choked'

Two planes were mistakenly put on a collision course over New Zealand when an air controller “choked under pressure”.

A report by the country’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission said the controller at Hamilton Airport became overwhelmed during a regular assessment.

During the evaluation, four incidents occurred in air space monitored by the control tower that caused the assessor to take charge, reports the New Zealand Herald.

''The controller became overwhelmed by the circumstances on the day and lost situational awareness of the aircraft within the control zone," the commission found.

The incident occurred in December 2015 during a controller’s yearly proficiency assessment that involved an assessor sitting behind them.

The report said a pilot on their first solo flight was directed to a head-on collision course with another aircraft. The planes came within 926 metres of each other.

''Following the fourth incident, the assessor stopped the assessment and took over as the aerodrome controller to resolve the situation,'' it said.

The incident resulted in no aircraft collisions and nobody was injured.

But a clinical psychologist’s report that assessed the controller’s actions found anxiety and pressure had triggered their behaviour.

“The psychologist's assessment of the controller's actions stated in part [that] the controller appears to have experienced 'choking under pressure', a phenomenon defined as a critical deterioration in the execution of habitual processes as a result of elevation in anxiety under perceived pressure, leading to substandard performance."