Okay, give me a chance to make what I'm thinking more clear. First off, the last quote was out of line and I'm sorry that I offended so many people. Second, this is in no way a Mesa bashing thing, these are just my observations and opinions. I don't work for a 121 carrier and probably never will. I don't see how that argument applies to this conversation. I look at it as a runway incursion between two airplanes.

I have never been to Allentown, PA. but I did look at thier taxi diagram and the TDZE of runway 6 is 8ft higher than the elevation of the crossing runways. The departure end elevation is 12ft lower than the TDZE. Taxiway B is just beyond the crossing runways. Which probably doesn't mean much, I just thought I'd point that out. I know first hand how hard it is to see at night, which means nothing more than, we all need to be extra alert.

My thought was that everyone was "patty caking" these guys without really wondering what caused the problem. I'm not saying that it was only thier fault. Personally, I think it was the towers more than the crews. I'll even go against what I wrote previously by admitting they did a great job getting themselves out of a really bad spot. But I think the situation was avoidable. And I'll stand by that.

P.S. I never intended to sound immune, mean, not caring, not loving, or disrespectful

 

I think you have to be a member of AOPA to use it.

 

I am a full member, and signed into aopa as well.
Don't get an error or anything, just re-directed to the front page

edit: hm, now the aopa site is down alltogether

edit: ah, now it's up again, and it works now

 

LiveATC Recordings | LiveATC.net...

Good job Mesa...

 

I listened to the tape and it sounds like they didn't have much warning on the impending incursion. Good job guys!

 

That was some scary stuff! A lot of time passed between when the controller asked the Cessna to exit, and when he cleared the RJ to takeoff! What the heck was he doing on the runway for that long???!! Something needs to be done about these runway incursions. We've had WAY too many close calls over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, it's just a matter of time.... Everybody stay safe out there! Good job to the Mesa crew, also!

 

I was a passenger on this flight, from ABE to ORD.

To give you some background, the inbound flight from Chicago had been diverted to Detroit due to a medical emergency. This caused the inbound flight to be late in arriving into ABE and, naturally, resulted in a late departure for our flight to ORD.

Before we left the gate, the pilot came out into the cabin and, using the intercom mic, told the passengers what had caused the delay and mentioned the amount of paperwork that diversion had required. He apologized for the delay.

By the time we pushed back from the gate, it was about 7:15pm (Eastern) and getting dark.

Whether or not the pilot could see all the way down the runway, I don't know. I commend him for the actions he took to avoid hitting the other aircraft. And i'm happy I'm here to relate this story.