This is an analysis at the What Would Vannear Blog (now on my blogroll).
The conclusion is that only one of the players in this saga, the inbound FedEx 767, had the bubble, the flick, the big picture. Only that crew saw what was going on. Taxiing onto the runway and taking off in a really-low visibility situation is not a quick process. Apparently, in clearing the SWA 737 to take the runway, the controller forgot all about that, or, possibly, never knew that. The SWA crew followed the tower's instructions, apparently in the belief that the tower controller had the flick.
Which he did not.
Keep in mind that when the Tower cleared SWA for takeoff, FedEx was inbound at somewhere between 140 and 200mph, depending on its landing weight. If we assume 150mph, that means it was coming in at 2.5 miles a minute. When the SWA pilot reported that it was rolling, FedEx was likely a half-mile or less from the runway. If the FedEx pilot had continued its approach, it would have been on the runway before the SWA 737 had left it. That's considered to be a Major Bozo No-No, because of the patently obvious risk of a collision.
We don't need another Tenerife.
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Sunday, February 12, 2023
7 comments:
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That is not pretty, but the report I saw suggested they were closer than the radar data showed, so relatively glad that report was wrong. However, that’s idiotic…I’ve done a few squeeze plays at towered fields, but never, absolutely never in conditions like that. Unless there were deleted transmissions, and the video suggests there are not, the left turn to the SWA on course without an altitude assignment below the FDX was not smart, and to not consider the outside risk of wake turbulence is also a no-no. He tried a right turn on the SWA and then just gave up on it when he said no…and took no other positive action. That’s not a happy thing to watch having been in the industry.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat related note, third object shot down over Lake Huron in the last hour or two…either the Chinese are really, really dumb or something is up. Assuming these are al Chinese, they should, you would think, have a self-destruct package. As such, after the first one, you pop the followups to eliminate additional provocation, no? It does beg the question, which I’m sure NORAD is digging into, of what we have missed over the past few years.
That was WAY too close!
ReplyDeleteAn old saw: the tower doesn't crash.
ReplyDeleteHaving had similar events while driving a C150
at various airports, it was driven home that
listen up and speak up were important.
As they say I have stories.
Eck!
Eck, the FDX pilot did, and good for him…but the tower flower discounted what the pilot understood.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there an issue with jet-wash that in all of this seems missed? I've seen boulders the size of bowling balls roll across the runway, not anywhere I want to be near in a helicopter, no matter how big it is. What I see here the FedEx not only avoided getting rear-ended but avoided flipping the Southwest end-to-end with its' jet-wash.
ReplyDeleteI don't know ~ Harleys and helicopters ...
Ten Bears, that’s the wake turbulence I mentioned. The wake turbulence would be behind and slightly below the FDX Heavy B-767…which is why I don’t understand allowing the SWA to climb and stay on track below the FDX for any amount of time, it’s asking for eventual trouble. The FDX was a little faster at first, so the wake was dropping toward the SWA and catching up slowly, but he never fell behind the FDX and thus remained clear of the real wake turbulence area. That said, he was still well within the protected area he shouldn’t be in.
ReplyDeleteSounds as though the controller needs a bit of refresher training.
ReplyDelete