Man killed by departing 737 on runway at Sheremetyevo

[bnt]

Moscow Times report (https://themoscowtimes.com/news/plane-runs-over-and-kills-man-on-moscow-airport-runway-63555):
A plane taking off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport ran over and killed an Armenian citizen who was in transit while being deported from Spain, Russian investigators have said.

Authorities said late on Tuesday that they were investigating the circumstances of the incident after a dead body was discovered on the airport runway. The Investigative Committee said the victim had been hit by the landing gear of an Athens-bound passenger jet.
So, a person is seen running in the direction of a runway, but flight movements continue as normal?

[Jet Jockey A4]

Weird! But then it's Russia.

[Hotel Tango]

So, a person is seen running in the direction of a runway, but flight movements continue as normal?

Quite an assumption, and the wrong one, you're making there! If they "discovered" a dead body on the runway one would rightly consider that they had no knowledge of it, probably until a scheduled runway check.

[bnt]

Not an assumption - the reports explicitly say he was seen heading in that direction:
“The man went through the airport gate during boarding for a Moscow-Yerevan flight, went to the platform bus, but quickly headed toward the runway instead of getting in,” the official was quoted as saying.
Maybe passengers only reported that later, but if any ground crew saw him, alarms should be going off ...

[judebrad]

It seems to be 3 different stages.
Arriving from Madrid.Starting a fight
Police give chase and runs onto runway.
Runs to runway where a plane is departing to Athens.

Why did they only discover when plane landed with "human remains were discovered on the plane".

Possible difficulty with the English language.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Saw something like this at Heathrow one evening. The Captain of a Northeast airlines flight rang ATC full of apologies saying his F/O had insisted he rang us as he had seen a body on the runway. A Checker vehicle was despatched and, sure enough, found the gentleman! They took him to hospital and I believe he died of pneumonia later.

[brak]

https://lenta.ru/news/2018/11/21/zapis - recording.
- Pilot assumed they hit a "hare" and continued take off (unless of course by "hare" he means a person, but does not sound that way to me)
- Human remains discovered on the runway.

[AlexGG]

"hare" is Russian slang for a stowaway or a passenger travelling without a ticket.

https://lenta.ru/news/2018/11/21/zapis

The rough transcript goes as follows

0:00 OK, so we done everything, lowered gear for verification, retracted gear, we're good, no failures, nothing is visible.
0:09 I think the "hare" [term for a stowaway] was not capable of inflicting... ehm... damage of any kind
0:17 We're carrying on with the flight

[brak]

"hare" is Russian slang for a stowaway or a passenger traveling without a ticket.

Well aware, but is it used in that sense in the airline world, though? Also, pilot's voice is too calm under circumstances, if he meant a person.

[AlexGG]

Meaning (and usage) of "hare" stays the same in any mode of transportation. Another thing, I don't think there are animal hares around SVO. At least, I put that as "extremely unlikely".

[Olesya]

I live near SVO - I can confirm: there are no animals at all around SVO.

[EEngr]

Why would the flight crew assume that a person dashing across the runway was a stowaway (hare)? It could have been some ground ops personnel at the wrong place and time.

[AlexGG]

I'm not exactly sure they assumed. The recording covers the part where the crew already completed any activity they wanted to ensure there is no problem, and they decided to continue to destination. This implies there was a previous discussion with ATC, probably about the possibility of returning to SVO.

[wiedehopf]

Why would the flight crew assume that a person dashing across the runway was a stowaway (hare)? It could have been some ground ops personnel at the wrong place and time.

Ground ops would be there in a car with flashing orange light. They would not enter the runway on foot.
They would probably also be wearing a high visibility vest.

[liider]

It's quite obvious, the pilot meant "animal", not "person". Otherwise they wouldn't have continued to Greece (the return flight was cancelled, plane is still in Athens).

[pattern_is_full]

So, we are aware this happened 3.6 hours after sunset? (7:54 pm local, sunset 4:14 pm local). Nightime.

It's not as thought the fugitive is going to be easy to track once he is into the grass islands and away from the ramp lights. (Remember a SWA 737 running into a ditch in darkness? 10 meters from the ramp edge?) Until he pops up in the aircraft lights.

And AFL2112 may have already been cleared for TO and lining up as the event developed. How long do we expect it to take for a ramp worker or guard to contact his boss, and for that boss to contact the tower, and for the tower to decide to cancel a clearance? Additionally allowing for startle-factor and situation awareness at each step - "what the heck exactly is going on here?"

[Check Airman]

What was the weather like at the time? At night, I can see a crew not being able to see something on the runway. However, an airplane is brightly lit, and loud!

[pattern_is_full]

True - but so is a freight train. And how many people still die thinking they can beat the train to the crossing? :(

As to the crew, at 130+ kts, I doubt they saw more than a shape flashing under the nose.

[karona]

"заяц" (zayatz) is also colloquially used for 'gatecrasher' or trespasser.

[bnt]

That was my thinking - no expectation that the pilot could have seen enough (if anything) before the hit to do anything about it. I haven't seen any information about when the collision happened during the takeoff run. If it was around or after V1, the pilot had to continue with the takeoff, of course.

[misd-agin]

True - but so is a freight train. And how many people still die thinking they can beat the train to the crossing? :(

As to the crew, at 130+ kts, I doubt they saw more than a shape flashing under the nose.

You have to be very near the center of the runway to get hit by the plane. With landing lights on they would have seen the person. Not enough time to avoid them but they certainly should have been able to realize it was a human.

[Hotel Tango]

With landing lights on they would have seen the person. Not enough time to avoid them but they certainly should have been able to realize it was a human.

Totally disagree with your statement!

[lomapaseo]

Occams razor works well

Expectations are that moving animated objects on or near runways are animals and not human..

when you hear hoof beats in a pasture do you think Zebras??

[ViktorKilmy]

I agree with you,just have watched some video on utube from a crew cabin at Sheremetyevo takeoff,there is no doubt if the person was going on the runway one would be in sight of crew memb. there was pretty clear weather at the moment over there and i guess either the person was lain on the surface of the rw( there was a restrict visual contact) or crew members were not clear enough with their vision of situation,

[ANJ64]

True - but so is a freight train. And how many people still die thinking they can beat the train to the crossing? :(

As to the crew, at 130+ kts, I doubt they saw more than a shape flashing under the nose.

Appligies off topic.
15,000. ( fifteen thousand) people a year die crossing railway tracks in India.
Puts airline safety into perspective

[brak]

"заяц" (zayatz) is also colloquially used for 'gatecrasher' or trespasser.
"Gatecrasher" perhaps. Trespasser - never heard of it used in that sense. Not that it matters much here, as we can only speculate as to what the crew intended to convey.

[visibility3miles]

If you don't expect to see a person, or animal, on the runway during takeoff, it may take a long time to realize what exactly crossed your path briefly when you have many other things to think about.

[KAISERSOZE]

If you don't expect to see a person, or animal, on the runway during takeoff, it may take a long time to realize what exactly crossed your path briefly when you have many other things to think about.

Agree.
Only the PF is looking outside, the other one looks at his screen. And the PF looks far away, not under the nose.

[misd-agin]

Agree.
Only the PF is looking outside, the other one looks at his screen. And the PF looks far away, not under the nose.
Forward look, airspeed, power. Constantly.
With lights you can see several hundred feet. To get hit by an airplane a person would have to be within 10-15 (?) meters of the landing gear when the airplane was a couple hundred of meters away if the plane was doing 130 kts, or more.
The landing lights light up enough to see a person if they're close enough. To hit them at some point they had to be close enough to be illuminated by the landing lights.
Could you do much about a person appearing in your field of view a couple of seconds prior to impact? No. Even if you saw them? No.
And you can't "look under the nose" in an airliner. You can't see anything within 5-10 meters of the nose.
At night you can only see several hundred feet for illuminated objects but runway lights can be seen for miles and miles.
People can look up night time takeoffs on youtube to estimate the forward visibility the landing lights provide. They can look up runway markings to get distance estimates.

[misd-agin]

If you don't expect to see a person, or animal, on the runway during takeoff, it may take a long time to realize what exactly crossed your path briefly when you have many other things to think about.

I agree there can be some uncertainty. Friend thought they might have hit a deer on takeoff. It came running from his side of the runway. Captain didn't see it and doubted him. Post flight found a bloody deer stuffed in the nose gear well.