View Full Version : Fact or Fiction at KMIA
ATCOtherapy
11th Mar 2023, 18:29
On another board I saw this: "AJT8741 and NKS3167 at MIA on 2/12 at 22:50. Not pretty. You can prob find it on FR24 playback." I cannot verify if it is true or just a "prank" post. Does anyone have any information?
SLF here, so just trying to present the facts and not opine/speculate, and I'll apologise in advance for any mistakes in terminology.
I had a look at the playback on FR24 (which seems to be a little temperamental today and keeps erroring so it's hard to do much) and listened to the ATC recordings.
Spirit is landing on 30 then calls a go-around from low height - looks to be pretty much at the airport perimeter before they start climbing again. The tower controller acknowledges the call around 9 seconds later.
A further 10 seconds later (the aircraft landing behind makes a call about a flock of birds on approach during this time) tower instructs them to "turn left immediately, heading 250, traffic out to the right" before correcting the heading to 310. Spirit queries the heading and tower confirms 310.
About 12 seconds later, tower tells them to maintain 3000ft and asks the reason for the go-around. I can't make our Spirit's response, but the tower controller then says "a little long on the landing, thank you" before handing them off to departure.
Amerijet is departing from 26R, and receives a takeoff clearance. Looking at FR24, they appear to have commenced their takeoff roll at pretty much the same time as Spirit commenced their go-around. 60 seconds after their takeoff clearance, the tower controller tells them to "[kinda] level off, traffic out to your left going around, a Spirit Airbus, turn left heading 250" which is acknowledged by Amerijet.
Around 5 seconds later, tower tells them "that traffic is well above you now, you can continue your climb" which is acknowledged. 15 seconds later, tower tells them "traffic no factor, continue heading 270" and hands them off to departure.
Their paths crossed around half a mile from the threshold of 08L, Spirit was climbing through ~1000ft, whilst Amerijet was at ~400ft. Amerijet looks to have passed slightly behind the Spirit based on the FR24 plot.
Spirit landed on 26R around 15 minutes later and Amerijet continued to destination.
ATCOtherapy
16th Mar 2023, 00:23
Thanks for the information, DP. I wasn't able to see the FR 24 'cause I'm too cheap to buy the upgrade. Your "report" sounds like what I'd guessed.
As a former FAA controller, I always worry that the parties involved might feel it's better to keep incidents quiet than make a serious attempt to fix the problem.. Whenever I hear, "Safety was never in jeopardy," I get an uneasy feeling. I hope they're being up-front.
I imagine we'll learn more about this incident.
I presume you mean 26R in your last sentence.
I presume you mean 26R in your last sentence.
Correct - apologies, clearly I'm thinking about EGCC too regularly! I've amended my post.
DaveReidUK
16th Mar 2023, 19:13
I had a look at the playback on FR24 (which seems to be a little temperamental today and keeps erroring so it's hard to do much) and listened to the ATC recordings.
If you really want to judge separation, forget about FR24 playbacks, which are iffy for a number of technical reasons. Instead, download their CSV data for the two flights in question and spend some time sanity-checking and then comparing them.