FlightDetent,
Even if the vis was better than what was reported, it is Not NORMAL in the U.S. to clear an aircraft to takeoff, in front of another aircraft on a 3 mile final! I fly for a very large Cargo Company. Flying into our large hub every night are there are hundreds of flights arriving and departing in in a very small window. We use 5 mile spacing minimum, and that’s in VFR conditions. Even with 5 mile spacing, I’m on short final, less than 1000 ft AGL, as the preceding aircraft ahead of me is turning off the runway. In the military, we used 30 second spacing, approx 1/2 mile spacing almost every time I landed the aircraft ahead of mine in formation was still on its landing roll. This isn’t the military, and 3 mile spacing is very tight. The fact that this happened in Cat 3 weather, and Southwest needed to do an engine run-up makes this whole event incredulous to every American pilot…it is not the Norm, (I’ve said this 30 times already). The Tower controller will have to answer a lot of tough questions, as will the Southwest crew for their apparent lack of SA. Also, there wasn’t any luck involved here, because, thankfully, FedEx knew what was going on the whole time. I guarantee, when interviewed, His reaction will be “What the Hell were they (Tower,Southwest) thinking”. Its not a systemic failure, it’s going to boil down to the Tower controller’s decision, and to what degree was Southwest’s awareness of FedEx’s location on the approach.
Last edited by Chiefttp; 16th Feb 2023 at 13:42.