Runway Incursion

[Scott Tortorice]

This is an interesting presentation of a near disaster:

Incursion

Not sure I followed all the commands, but I gather the smaller plane just forgot to hold at the runway?

 

[pward]

If I'm following it correctly, the tower told the small plane to enter the runway and take a position prepared to take off. "N409DR, Charlotte tower, 18L position and hold, traffic landing 23" tells the small plane to get on runway 18L and hold position (I think) and alerts the pilot to traffic on the other runway. Right after telling the bluestreak plane to take off using the same runway. I wish there was a timestamp to queue up that part, It's fairly close to the end.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

I think you're right. There is also a text description that seems to indicate the tower gave the small plane clearance right before it told the larger plane to take off (or vice versa). Looks like a tower error.

 

[pward]

I think, from what little I know about ground control type things, that the tower was likely thinking the light plane was also at the end of the runway, not part-way down. Telling it to taxi out (after the bigger plane) and take position makes some sense. So long as it delays a bit for the turbulence to die down before attempting to take off itself, that would have been fine.

It's a fine example of why I wouldn't want to be a controller, ground/tower/air-traffic...