Sorry for that but for some reason I managed to get the article without registering or logging in. Anyway here it is:
2 close calls in one week jolt O'Hare
Planes aborted takeoffs to avoid collision, feds say
By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
Published March 25, 2006
Twice this week planes were forced to abort takeoffs at O'Hare International Airport to avoid colliding with other aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.
In one close call, two airliners that were mistakenly instructed to take off at the same time on crisscrossing runways came within 100 feet of each other before the pilots were alerted and stopped their planes near the runway intersection, officials said.
Tuesday's near collision ranks in the most serious category of runway incursions--situations where two aircraft are in the same area at the same time.
Incidents of such severity occur, on average, less than one time for every million takeoffs and landings, said FAA spokesman Greg Martin in Washington.
"It's extremely rare. We have gone an entire year without having a serious incident like that at any U.S. airport," he said.
The other incident, on Thursday, involved a plane sent to taxi across an active runway where another plane already had started its takeoff roll, the FAA said. The planes came within about 600 feet of each other.
"Both incidents look to be air-traffic controller errors," said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro in Chicago. He said an FAA investigation is under way.
No one on the four planes was injured. But the incidents are considered so disturbing, and perhaps fit into a pattern of increasing runway incursions across the country, that the National Transportation Safety Board said it will dispatch investigators to O'Hare next week. The board typically responds to fatal accidents.
"We are sending investigators because O'Hare had two major runway incursions in one week," said safety board spokeswoman Lauren Peduzzi in Washington.
Seven runway incursions--five caused by controller errors, one by pilot error and one from an errant vehicle--occurred at O'Hare last year, the FAA said. The airport handled 972,246 flights last year. Not counting the incidents this week, four incursions, all controller errors, have taken place so far this year at O'Hare, the FAA said.
The incident on Tuesday began at 4:20 p.m., when an Airbus A319 operated by Lufthansa taxied onto Runway 4 Left and waited for a plane that had landed to exit the runway, the FAA said.
A Delta Connection regional jet also taxied onto intersecting Runway 9 Left while it waited for a plane to depart.
A controller--who is new to O'Hare and was being trained by a veteran controller--then cleared the Lufthansa plane to take off, the FAA said.
Thirty-five seconds later, the same trainee controller cleared the Delta Connection jet for takeoff on the intersecting runway, the FAA said.
Another controller noticed that both planes were rolling on a collision course, and the takeoff instructions to both airplanes were canceled, the FAA said. Pilots on both planes applied full braking.
"They stopped themselves just short of the intersection," Peduzzi said.
The planes ended up only 100 feet apart, the FAA said.
Another close call
Two days later, another close call occurred.
At 9:07 a.m. Thursday, a controller directed a United Airlines Boeing 737-300 to taxi onto 4 Left. The same controller instructed another plane, an Airbus A320 operated by United's low-cost carrier Ted, to taxi across 4 Left toward another runway, the FAA said.
Fifteen seconds later, the controller cleared the 737, carrying 111 passengers and five crew members bound for Washington, for takeoff, the FAA said. Twenty-two seconds later, the co-pilot of the 737 saw the Airbus, carrying 156 passengers to Orlando, moving toward the runway and advised the O'Hare tower that his plane was aborting its takeoff.
The planes came within 600 feet of crashing, the FAA said.
Pilots to be interviewed
The safety board's probe into the two incidents will involve reviewing radio communications and radar tapes. Officials also will interview the pilots and the air-traffic and ground controllers on duty in the O'Hare tower, Peduzzi said.
The airport's aircraft movement surveillance system will be studied to determine whether it alerted controllers to the potential collisions.
The runway safety technology that the FAA has deployed at O'Hare has no capability to recognize traffic on intersecting runways, officials said.
The equipment, called the Airport Movement Area Safety System, alerts controllers to a potential collision with as little as eight seconds of warning. It leaves little time for controllers to radio the warnings to pilots.
"The incidents at O'Hare this week point to the urgent need for new technology that lets pilots directly see other aircraft on the airport surface," said Pete Janhunen, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest airline union.
"The pilot is at the throttle. The pilot can avoid these things."
----------
[email protected]