Near mis at Austin airport
- Thread starter PAstr
- Start date
I used to fly into Austin about once a month. Here are the details.
www.independent.co.uk
Cargo plane almost lands on top of departing Southwest flight in near-miss
FedEx carrier and commercial aircraft were given clearance to use same runway
www.independent.co.uk
I fly into Austin quite a bit and am familiar with their procedures. That flight radar gives a pretty good picture of what happened, but it uses ADS-B so there is some lag time. When/if radar information is made available, I think it will show his was a really near miss. That particular controller made several big mistakes in my opinion.
Is it fair to say that the fedex crews quick actions are the only thing prevented this from being much worse?
The FedEx guys are absolutely the ones that saved the day. I have no idea what he controller was thinking, but the blame rests with him. As for the Southwest crew, I think they might/should have asked for a delayed departure because hey knew they were going to need additional time on the runway due to procedures caused by the freezing fog.
Amazing it was caught on video. Fescue pilot was amazingly calm. Traffic controller sounded like he in tears. Understandable.
That’s a simulation (very realistic looking one though).
My best friend is an ATC for Midway here in Chicago so I asked him about it. Said the controller tried to sneak the SWA flight out before the Fedex plane landed and was too late making sure they'd started their ground roll and then he froze. The fog combined with Austin not having ASDE-X (ground radar) made things worse. They were less than 80 feet apart at their closest according to him.
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The controller should never had cleared the Southwest jet onto the runway as FedEx was conducting a CAT III approach. Keeping the “critical area” clear during these approaches is mandatory. Even if he was trying to squeeze Southwest into the mix, he should have said “cleared for an immediate takeoff “. After having listened to the tapes, I’m guessing Southwest did a static engine run-up while on the runway due to the need for engine anti icing for the takeoff. This takes 30 seconds after getting into position on the runway.
