A pair of jetliners came less than 100 feet from colliding with each
other during a so-called runway incursion on the south airfield of Los
Angeles International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said
Monday.
The pilot of Midwest Airlines Flight 1503, coming in from
Milwaukee, landed on the southernmost runway and turned onto the center
taxiway about 2:50 p.m. Sunday, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.
The pilot correctly read back an air traffic controller's
instructions to turn the Embraer E-190 jetliner onto another taxiway
and stop, Gregor said. But instead of following the instructions, the pilot continued to cross the taxiway's hold bars, Gregor said. At the same time, Northwest Airlines Flight 623, a Boeing 757 jetliner,
was rolling down the departures runway to take off for Honolulu.
An air traffic controller noticed what was going on and
instructed the Midwest Airlines pilot to stop just as an alarm sounded
in the control tower, Gregor said.

"The controller saw what was happening and immediately took
action to keep this incident from becoming more serious," Gregor said.
The Midwest Airlines jet stopped just before it entered the
departures runway, about 200 feet past the taxiway's hold bars,
according to Mike Foote, president of the local air traffic controllers
union.
"This was a pretty nasty near-miss and I would say from my perspective that the planes were 10 to 15 feet from each
other," said Foote, who was inside the control tower during the runway incursion.
"I
just remember seeing the entire plane cross the hold bars and pull all
the way up to the edge of the runway," Foote said. "The pilot probably
looked down the runway and froze when he saw the other plane coming
right at him."
Gregor acknowledged that the planes came within 100 feet of
each other, but said that the exact distance was still being
calculated.
"This was the first runway incursion of this kind" at LAX's
south airfield since an $83 million centerline taxiway was built
between the two runways, Gregor said. In August 2007, jetliners began
using the 10,000-foot-long concrete strip as a buffer zone, giving
pilots a place to slow down and wait for clearance before heading to
the terminals.
Earlier this year, officials at LAX switched on new runway
status lights, which serve as a stoplight system alerting pilots when
it's safe to cross a runway.
The $7 million lighting system, funded entirely by LAX, was
installed at three taxiway intersections on the south airfield, but not
at the one that the Midwest Express pilot had crossed, Foote said.
The air traffic controllers union and representatives from
the Air Line Pilots Association told the FAA that the runway lights
should be installed at all of LAX's taxiways, given the airport's
history with near-collisions between planes moving on the ground.
"I honestly believe that the chances are very good that the
pilot would have stopped if he saw red lights at that taxiway," Foote
said. "We're just upset because we told the FAA that they may have
fixed the geometry on the south side, but those lights were needed at
every intersection because incursions could still happen."
Gregor said that more runway status lights would have been
installed if LAX had additional funds. In the meantime, the airport and
the FAA has developed an installation plan "that covered the areas with
the greatest vulnerability," he said.
Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district
includes LAX, said he plans to submit a motion today asking for an
official account of the latest runway incursion, along with a report
from airport staff detailing where more runway status lights should be
installed.
"The FAA and the airport need to aggressively move ahead
with installing more runway status lights, especially on the south
airfield in the spots where the air traffic controllers feel they need
to be in place," Rosendahl said. "Let's do it at every taxiway, if we
can."
Earlier this month, the FAA announced that only eight
runway incursions were reported at LAX during the fiscal year that
ended Sept. 30, all of which were classified as "minor," down from nine
such incidents a year earlier.
That was a significant drop from just two years ago, when
LAX reported 21 runway incursions, two of which were deemed "serious."
The last serious near-collision at LAX was reported Aug. 16, 2007, when
two jetliners came within 37 feet of each other on the north airfield.
"The FAA has been relentless in its pursuit of airfield
safety at LAX," said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of LAX.
"While it is their task to determine the effective distribution of
safety devices, it's equally clear that the FAA's commitment to the use
of both airfield design and safety technology has combined to
materially reduce the number of incursions at LAX."