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More US Runway Incursion Incidents

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PHXPhlyer
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More US Runway Incursion Incidents

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:43 pm

On eve of air safety summit, FAA administrator says there have been more near-collisions than expected in U.S. skies
Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen told NBC News that while it remains safe to fly, officials will not "take that safety for granted."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fa ... -rcna74853

In the wake of a series of high-profile near-collisions at U.S. airports — and one terrifying plunge from the sky — the Federal Aviation Administration is hosting an impromptu safety summit Wednesday to assess whether changes need to be made to how American flights are regulated.

This comes as the FAA is investigating yet another close call in their backyard. On March 7 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Republic Airways Flight 4736 crossed a runway without clearance, putting it in the path of another flight — United Airlines Flight 2003 — that had just been cleared for takeoff, the FAA told NBC News on Tuesday.

After clearing the United flight for takeoff, an air traffic controller saw what happened and canceled the clearance.

"United 2003 cancel takeoff clearance," the air traffic controller said. "Aborting takeoff, aborting takeoff United 2003."

The Republic pilot had initially been cleared to cross a different runway but turned onto the wrong taxiway, according to the FAA.

In an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said that while it remains safe to fly, officials have grown concerned as they have begun "to see things that we don’t expect to see."

“We expect every flight to operate as it should,” Nolen said. “And so we’ve had these events over the past few weeks. That gives us a moment to say, Let’s stop. Let’s reflect. Let’s ask ourselves the question: Are we missing anything?”

The full interview airs Tuesday evening on NBC’s "Nightly News" at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Near-collisions rattle flyers
Among the most high-profile of the recent incidents: An American Airlines flight crossed an active taxiway at JFK Airport in New York City as a Delta Airlines flight was about to take off, prompting the FAA to issue subpoenas to the American pilots; a Learjet 60 took off from Boston's Logan International Airport without clearance and nearly collided with a landing JetBlue flight; and a FedEx cargo airplane trying to land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas narrowly avoided hitting a Southwest Airlines flight preparing to take off.

In fact, FAA data show there have been fewer overall near-miss incidents over the past six months than in the same periods prior.

Still, compared with an average of four to 10 “serious runway events” or near misses a year over the past decade, Nolen said, recent months have produced more incidents “than you’d expect to see.”

That also includes a United Airlines flight taking off from Maui unexpectedly plunging to within 800 feet of the Pacific Ocean, causing terror aboard.

"It's a good opportunity for us to just make sure, let’s go pressure test our assumptions," Nolen said of the summit.

'Pressures in the system'
Aviation experts have questioned whether one factor leading to the uptick in incidents is the swift rebound in flying in the wake of the pandemic. While the numbers remain just short of February 2020 levels, Nolen acknowledged a resurgence in air travel has affected the flying landscape.

"We’re coming out of the backside of this pandemic," he said. "And ... truly we’re seeing pent up demand for flying. Flying has come back with a vengeance, so to speak."

That demand for air travel is coming at the same time as the aviation industry grapples with a wave of retirements that occurred as the pandemic bore down. Nolen said that while hiring is occurring "aggressively" to refill the positions, the combined weight of increased flying and ongoing hiring has produced "some pressures in the system."

Amid record profitability for airlines, Nolen called on carriers to continue to create schedules that "match their capability and demands of the market."

"We want to make sure as we look not only today but into into the summer and into the future that we’ve got that happening," Nolen said.

Nationwide ground stop in January was the 'right decision'
The FAA is also continuing to address concerns about the temporary nationwide ground stop imposed in January after its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMS) system went offline.

Nolen said that the stoppage "was the right move to make in that moment."

"What the flying public expect is that they’re safe, and that there’s a level of predictability there and we want to give them as much as we can," he said. "I couldn’t guarantee that in that moment there. And so we made the right decision in the interest of safety to take a timeout, make sure the system was safe."

But he acknowledged that the FAA must ameliorate a system where there can be "a single point of failure." He praised Congress for recently pledging to provide funding so that the FAA can continue to upgrade its systems.

"What I’ve heard time and again: 'We’re prepared to help you, we’re prepared to give you the the resources that you need,'" Nolen said of Hill officials. "And so we’re very grateful for that. Our mission is to make sure we get it right."

'Flying is very safe'
Despite the recent crop of troubling incidents, Nolen emphasized that flying in the U.S. remains "very safe," noting there has not been a major fatality event since 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407, a subsidiary of Continental Airlines — now part of United Airlines — went down en route to Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 passengers and crew aboard.

"We have the safest most complex Airspace System in the world and it is very safe," he said. "It is very resilient. And with that, we will continue always to never take that safety for granted. We will not become complacent."

But the recent episodes nevertheless have the attention of safety officials, Nolen said.

"When we see a few events that pop up, we’re going to take a moment to say 'Hey, is there something we’re missing here?' Because this is this is an incredible record, and we want to keep it going."

PP

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Re: More US Runway Incursion Incidents

#2 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:54 pm

Incident: Envoy E175 at Houston on Mar 5th 2023, commenced takeoff without clearance
By Simon Hradecky, created Monday, Mar 13th 2023 20:19Z, last updated Monday, Mar 13th 2023 20:19Z

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=506650c9&opt=0

An Envoy Embraer ERJ-175 on behalf of American Airlines, registration N258NN performing flight MQ-3338/AA-3338 from Houston Hobby,TX to Dallas Ft. Worth,TX (USA), was cleared to line up runway 13R and wait, however, commenced their takeoff roll.

At that time a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX, registration N8725L performing flight WN-2683 from Austin,TX to Houston Hobby,TX (USA), was on short final to Houston's runway 04, which intersects with runway 13R, at about 20:17L (02:17Z Mar 6th).

Tower instructed the Embraer to stop and the Boeing to go around resolving the conflict as the Boeing went around from very low height (below 100 feet AGL) and the Embraer slowed. The Embraer was subsequently instructed to vacate runway 13R to their left onto taxiway H about 220 meters/720 feet short of the intersection with runway 04 and was provided with a phone number to call.

The Boeing positioned for another approach and landed safely on runway 04 about 9 minutes after the go around.

The FAA reported on Mar 13th 2023: "The crew of Envoy Air Flight 3338 began their takeoff roll without clearance on March 5 at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston as Southwest Airlines Flight 2863 was cleared to land on an intersecting runway. At the direction of an air traffic controller, Envoy stopped short of the intersecting runway and Southwest discontinued its landing. The closest proximity of the two aircraft was approximately 4,100 feet."

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA ... /KAUS/KHOU

Metars:
KHOU 060353Z 14005KT 10SM FEW250 17/14 A3003 RMK AO2 SLP173 T01720144 $=
KHOU 060253Z 13004KT 10SM BKN250 18/14 A3003 RMK AO2 SLP174 T01780144 53012 $=
KHOU 060153Z 14006KT 10SM BKN250 19/14 A3002 RMK AO2 SLP168 T01890139 $=
KHOU 060053Z 11008KT 10SM OVC250 20/13 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP166 T02000133 $=
KHOU 052353Z 11011KT 10SM SCT250 22/12 A3000 RMK AO2 SLP163 T02220117 10261 20222 55004 $=
KHOU 052253Z 11011KT 10SM FEW250 24/11 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP160 T02390106 $=

PP

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Re: More US Runway Incursion Incidents

#3 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:29 pm

Incident: Republic E175 at Washington on Mar 7th 2023, runway incursion
By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, Mar 15th 2023 18:01Z, last updated Wednesday, Mar 15th 2023 18:06Z

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=5067c7a6&opt=0

A Republic Airways Embraer ERJ-175 on behalf of American Airlines, registration N401YX performing flight AA-4736 from Washington National,DC to Raleigh/Durham,NC (USA), was taxiing for departure from runway 01 along taxiway J and still on ground frequency was cleared to cross runway 04 on taxiway J straight ahead of them, the crew correctly read back that taxi and crossing clearance, however, turned left onto taxiway F and crossed runway 01 instead.

About 10 seconds earlier a United Airbus A319-100, registration N819UA performing flight UA-2003 from Washington National,DC to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), had received takeoff clearance from runway 01 and was accelerating on the runway, when tower instructed the aircraft to cancel takeoff clearance. The crew rejected takeoff at very low speed (below 20 knots over ground) about 600 meters/1980 feet short of the intersection of runway 01 with taxiway F.

The Airbus vacated runway 01 via taxiway A about 520 meters/1700 feet short of the intersection with taxiway F, returned to the holding point runway 01 and departed about 8 minutes after the rejected takeoff.

The Embraer subsequently taxied to the holding point runway 33 and departed about 15 minutes later.

The FAA opened an investigation into the occurrence and has called for a safety summit as result of the recent frequent similar occurrences.

PP

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Re: More US Runway Incursion Incidents

#4 Post by llondel » Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:01 pm

And another one

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tw ... -rcna75785
Two aircraft had a close call over the weekend at the Hollywood Burbank Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday, days after holding a summit to address rising safety concerns.

A Southwest flight was approaching a runway at the airport at 9:52 a.m. Saturday when an air traffic controller noticed a helicopter was on that same runway, according to a statement from the FAA. The helicopter, a Bell 505, had been practicing touch-and-go landings.

The controller instructed the Southwest flight, a Boeing 737, to discontinue its approach and go around. The incident is now being investigated by the FAA.

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