It has emerged that two Embraer regional aircraft came close to colliding at a San Francisco International airport runway intersection due to an air traffic control mistake earlier this year, resulting in the controller being sent for retraining.
According to the US National Transportation Safety Board, on 26 May the San Francisco local controller had cleared an inbound SkywestEmbraer Brasilia to land on runway 28R, and shortly afterwards he cleared a Republic AirlinesEmbraer 170 to take off from 01L, which intersects with it.
The captain of the E-170 saw the Brasilia as both aircraft were approaching the runway intersection, but knew he could not stop in time.
He took control from the co-pilot and rotated early, climbing directly over the top of the Brasilia twin turboprop, says the NTSB interim report, missing it by an estimated 30-50ft (9-15m) vertically.
Recordings show the Republic E-170 had been cleared for take-off 1s before the Skywest Brasilia crossed the threshold of 28R. Just 27s later, according to the NTSB's records, the sound of an aural airport movement area safety system alert can be heard in the tower, and within 1s of that the local controller transmitted: "Skywest hold hold hold."
According to tower controllers' statements, the Skywest Brasilia came to a stop in the intersection of runways 01L and 28R. The NTSB says the pilots had applied maximum braking to do so.
The controllers' estimate of the minimum separation between the two aircraft was 300ft, but radar records show that the returns for the two aircraft merged and became unreadable, and when they separated again the Republic E-170 could be seen climbing through 200ft. The Republic pilots' estimate of how close they came to collision was "30-50ft". The NTSB is carrying out a full investigation into the incident.
On 6 June, NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker, testifying before the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, highlighted runway incursion as being one of five aviation safety issues on the board's "red" list of "most wanted safety improvements".
Red-list items are NTSB studies or recommendations to which the board believes the US Federal Aviation Administration has failed to respond adequately.
In addition to runway incursion, the red list includes aircraft icing improving audio and data recorders and requiring video recorders on aircraft reducing accidents caused by human fatigue, and improving crew resource management training for air-taxi operations.
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- Controller error caused O'Hare incursion
Source: FlightGlobal.com
