Austin Southwest and FedEx Near Crash Explained

Pilots,

Here's a really good explanation of this near-miss incident in Austin and the professionalism of the pilots and ATC involved.



Happy flying,

John

I've often wondered, when the tower clears me "taxi into position and hold" with someone else on final, who is responsible to deconflict us if I tarry too long. Clearly the best solution is not to clear me to takeoff and to tell the traffic on final to go around. Otherwise, he's likely to land on top of me, particularly under limited visibility conditions. This happened to a colleague of mine (Steve) at LAX, when another plane landed on top of his aircraft waiting to takeoff. This ruptured the fuselage of Steve's aircraft. Fortunately, he was sitting near the back and was able to walk out of the aircraft unhurt, unlike those sitting up front, some of whom lost their lives.

Mike

My first thought when I heard of this incident was that there was some inexperienced or distracted ATC that made a mistake.  From this video, it appears to be more of a miscalculation in timing.  While the audio seemed to indicate to me that all involved were experienced, the fact that this type of activity seems to go on regularly (timing departing and arriving aircraft for the most efficient use of the runway), doesn't really give you a sense of safety.  

I'm guessing that the ATC will be much more conservative in his spacing of aircraft in the future.  It will be interesting to see what the NTSB recommendations will be following their investigation.  This and the other recent incidents haven't really given me the warm fuzzies about the current safety of air travel.

John