An air traffic controller noticed what was going on and instructed the Midwest Airlines pilot to stop just as an alarm sounded in the control tower, Gregor said.
"The controller saw what was happening and immediately took action to keep this incident from becoming more serious," Gregor said.
The Midwest Airlines jet stopped just before it entered the departures runway, about 200 feet past the taxiway's hold bars, according to Mike Foote, president of the local air traffic controllers union.
"This was a pretty nasty near-miss and I would say from my perspective that the planes were 10 to 15 feet from each
other," said Foote, who was inside the control tower during the runway incursion. "I just remember seeing the entire plane cross the hold bars and pull all the way up to the edge of the runway," Foote said. "The pilot probably looked down the runway and froze when he saw the other plane coming right at him." Gregor acknowledged that the planes came within 100 feet of each other, but said that the exact distance was still being calculated. "This was the first runway incursion of this kind" at LAX's south airfield since an $83 million centerline taxiway was built between the two runways, Gregor said
(Pure speculation) I'd bet dollars to doughnuts it was a case of IOE or SLF ,or whatever RAH calls it, being given by a check airman, and both of them were new to the LA area. It can be a hornet's nest out there when you get assigned all four runways during the same approach.
Hmm. How much longer before "someone" comes on here and starts screaming "Fire them, fire them . . they VIOLATED SOP by crossing a hold line without clearance!!!"
I'd say if the city and the fed already have spent $83 million bucks to prevent it, they know there's a problem. Back to the drawing board, I guess. Although that said, I suppose the backup alarm did work as intended.
Thank goodness we live in a climate that says "learn what caused mistakes, then build systems to avoid future repeats" instead of one that says "just fire the pilots".
In a press release, a Republic spokesperson said "We have submitted a bid to purchase that runway and intend to use it to leverage the value of the Midwest brand. Reducing taxi times to the gate by not requiring ATC clearances to cross this runway, coupled with chocolate chip cookies, creates a symbiotic relationship between the LAX, Midwest, Republic, Frontier, and Lynx brands."
(Pure speculation) I'd bet dollars to doughnuts it was a case of IOE or SLF ,or whatever RAH calls it, being given by a check airman, and both of them were new to the LA area. It can be a hornet's nest out there when you get assigned all four runways during the same approach.
Assigned all four runways during the same approach? Go thru lax a lot and never had that happen, it has been a long time since i was swithed from north to south complex or south to north unless still a long way out from airport. Would agree though about ioe as we have a lot of incidents from those.
In a press release, a Republic spokesperson said "We have submitted a bid to purchase that runway and intend to use it to leverage the value of the Midwest brand. Reducing taxi times to the gate by not requiring ATC clearances to cross this runway, coupled with chocolate chip cookies, creates a symbiotic relationship between the LAX, Midwest, Republic, Frontier, and Lynx brands."
Similar Threads
Linear Mode
