runway incursion?
 

As we were landing last night (July 31, 2006) in Columbus, Ohio on Delta 1729 we quickly stopped on the runway and turned back on the same runway to go to an exit behind our plane. As we are making this turn my husband and I are watching, (shocked that we were still on an active runway) unbelievably as another plane which is to land behind us, is quickly approaching. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. We were sitting in seats 16 D& E so had a full view. At what seemed to us, just in time, the plane which was to land, pulled up and abondoned his approach. We obviously had a loss of separation and both our flights had to take quick action to avoid an accident. It sure seemed to us (and another passenger behind us) that the plane which was to land was a large plane. He exclaimed, we were just about hit by a 747! Looking at the records this morning, we think it was actually a comair plane Com276/Delta 5276.

Shaken, as we left the aircraft I questioned the co pilot about what happened. First he tried to not acknowledge the situation, but then agreed, it's never good when that kind of thing happens.

Have others had a simular situation occur to you? How common is this? We fly alot and have never been involved in such a situation.

Are these problems reported officially and is this an air traffic controller mistake or pilot mistake?

FlightAware.com is the web site we looked at to try and figure out which flight was actually behind our plane, and had to take evasive action. It reports that that flight got to 1500 feet (ground level is 815 feet) and pulled up to 4000 feet.

If anyone has more knowledge of this sort of incident, I'd love to hear your opinions on what happened last night.

Thanks so much.

Things like this happen every day, at every airport. Just regular operation at most busy airports.

I've been in that situation, but in the plane that pulled up.

It gets the blood flowing.

Keith

That's not to comforting to think it happens every day and is just regular operation.

Tell me it isn't so....

I don't think air traffic controllers would be to happy with this happening over and over.

It does happen all the time, especially at busy airports. Planes are spaced out at a minimum seperation distance for landing, and this assumes things are going smoothly on the ground. Something out of ordinary happen, then the next plane have to pull up and go around.

That's why there is minimum seperation and it's standard operating procedure.

I used to planespot quite a bit at DCA some years ago, and I have seen plenty of abandoned landings, for one reason or another.

<b>I used to planespot quite a bit at DCA some years ago</b>

that may not be a good idea these days...:-D


<b>Images2</b>,

this is an article written in 2000, but it should answer all the questions you have about this issue...

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/features/feat0010.html

AAFF - You know about the park on the Potomac that's immediately north of DCA's main runway? I have not been back there since 9/11, so I don't know what kind of security measures they have there now.

no I don't,

I was just making a general observation. Actually, I'm sure you could still do it, but you may be asked questions on occasion, (if you know what I mean :-D ).

I'm sure it still is very possible and you will not be interfered with.

I did the same thing as a boy with my dad in Chicago. Irving Park Road had side parking right by the ORD fence and you could actually park and watch the planes takeoff and land, and the best part? the planes were within couple of hundred feet right above.

I still see cars with families parked there on the few occasions my flight lands or takeoffs at the specific runway, so unless the authorities see something &quot;suspicious&quot; going on, I'm sure it still happens at every airport.

I'm just thinking that Washington DC airport general security procedures may be somewhat more sensitive, but at the same time I don't have any &quot;inside&quot; info. I just made a little joke with my first post.

There was a highly publicized one at O'Hare last week in which a plane taking off came very close to a cargo plane that had just landed on an intersecting runway - cleared the tail of the cargo plane by about 300 feet.

Thanks for the link to the article. I read it as being quite a serious offense.

I still wonder why the incursion, we were flying commercial, daylight landing, good weather and not a terribly busy airport. Something sure went wrong, I just don't know if it was pilot error, or air traffic control error.

In any case, I hope we don't experience it again.

Hi Images2

What you experienced is not that uncommon at busy airports. The plane that was landing behind you executed what is called a go-around.

It was approaching in the expectation that the plane you were in would clear the runway in a timely manner, however it did not. It would not have been cleared to land until your plane was clear of the active runway. The pilots of the plane that was landing behind you will have calculated a decision point at which they decide whether to proceed with the landing or execute a go-around (I generally use a decision point of 400feet AGL [above ground level]). Some pilots will be tempted to leave it a little longer but they certainly cannot land until the runway is clear of traffic.

The fact your plane backtracked on the active runway is what threw things a bit screwey.

Your plane's pilots would not have been allowed to do this unless they were cleared to do so by the control tower as of course they do not have a rear view mirror they cannot see what traffic is behind them or how close. It is strange that at a busy airport they were allowed to do this instead of rolling on to the next exit and vacating the active runway there.

By the looks of the info you have found on the flightaware site the following plane's pilots executed a go around before the decision height was reached.

At the airport I fly at there are a lot of student pilots who sometimes take longer to make decisions that other pilots would make more expediently. This means that sometimes they stay on the runway a little longer or they enter the runway a little too early when a plane is approaching for a lnding. The result is that the landing aircraft has to execute a go around. I have had to do this many a time. The most disturbing time though was when I was flying circuits (Basically circles round the airfield) and a helicopter was in the plane's circuit, it was a high performance rescue helicopter so its speed was comparible to a planes. It was ahead of me. I tried to leave it plenty of room to land and vacate so that I would have plenty of room to do likewise. But of course helicopters being helicopters do not fly like planes. He got to the runway stopped and hovered. With me fast approaching I made the decision to go around. The helicopter immediately started to climb ahead of me and I had to take some evasive action. However in the scheme of things nothing was compromised as far as separation was concerned. I just wish the helicopter pilot was paying better attention to his radio. I might add there is no tower at this airport either. Adds to a challenging day.

So overall, what you saw is not uncommon, but the pilots of your plane should have taken better consideration perhaps of the passengers sensibilities especially those not familiar with this practice.

Sounds like something happened with a plane that landed AHEAD of your flight, or another plane that was waiting for take off. That's why your plane needs to use the runway to backtrack and the plane behind you have to go around.

In 2000 I flew British Airways into Athens. We were making our descent and just as we were about to land, the pilot made a sharp right turn, we shot up into the air again, and the next thing I knew we were over the ocean. All of the passengers were were really confused, and finally the pilot said in a chipper British accent (imagine John Cleese making this announcement) &quot;Sorry ladies and gents, we're not able to land on that approach, so let's go 'round again and give it another go.&quot; He sounded so happy and calm, but we all knew something happened, or almost happened. But that's OK, somebody made a quick decision and everyone was safe.

Thanks alot for the explainations! We too were thrilled with both pilots quick reaction thus avoiding any accident.

Soon I'll be on another flight, and this will be but a memory!

Thanks for everyone's explanations and accounts! Images2, your post helped me learn how these things go and I'll feel more at ease should I ever be witness to such a thing.

Lynne

BTW, for those who don't like their plane trips to be &quot;adventurous&quot;, please don't fly with P_M. :p