Originally Posted by
underfire
lots of questions on this one. ...
Acknowledging that both the NTSB and the TSB (CA) will conduct their typically exacting inquiries, still, it may be worth noting the categories into which some, at least, of those "lots of questions" will fall within.
1. Factually, who exactly called "Where's this guy going? He's on the taxiway"? And was there a decisive cue for the pilot who did so? (The controller's answer to AC 759's inquiry about lights on the runway, across the runway, in transcript, is "There's no one on 2-8 right but you" - but when played, there is a tone of definiteness in the controller's diction. Did this grab the other pilot's attention? - and what does this all say about RT procedures?)
2. The physics of the situation. How close was the AC aircraft to a collision? Was it approaching a physical state in which a collision was unavoidable? (Yes, no aviator would try to land an aircraft on a runway [taxiway, either] after seeing other aircraft lined up on it - but the issue here is how long it took for that "seeing" to occur and how it occurred.)
3. Did AC 759 initiate the GA prior to the tower calling a GA?
4. Lighting configurations and types, and visual fixating.
5. Approach design and its evidently many technical and varied subparts (instruments and data used in particular approaches, database alignment with particular types of approaches, carrier operational procedures which may vary, whether the "Quiet" aspect of the approach in this incident is a factor, and others as well).
If the impression the thread has given, namely that the AC aircraft had very little margin left in terms of position and momentum, is correct, then at the risk of being charged with excitability, I would advise the safety enquiry authorities to view this as an instance when the Cheese was a bit more viscous or impervious than usual, and precisely how something this close happened must be understood.