Originally Posted by
paxhauler85
The cessna had no strobes. The tower was operating, so there was no need for the cessna to report clear. The "we missed our exit" transmission was heard at 120+ kts.
F/O saw the tail nav light on the cessna, followed by the illumination of the entire aircraft in the CRJ's landing lights. The abort was initiated at 140kts, and the CRJ literally passed the cessna on the rwy. The aircraft never left the rwy surface.
Sounds like a job well done to me.
I agree! Sounds like they did a good job. A dark (no strobes) small aircraft at night is incredibly hard to see some 4 or 5 thousand feet down a runway. This same thing happened to a TWA crew back in '94 in STL. A twin engine Cessna was position and hold on the wrong runway and the MD-80's wing sheared the top of the twin off, but they managed to avoid a worse collision. Of course, the pilots in the twin were killed. Scary stuff, but looks like the last minute reaction of the Mesa pilots "saved the day" this time.