Runway incursion in San Francisco

Citation

(2007), "Runway incursion in San Francisco", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 79 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2007.12779fab.016

Runway incursion in San Francisco

Runway incursion in San Francisco

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a runway incursion in San Francisco recently in which two airliners may have come within 50ft of each other on intersecting runways.

At about 1:30 p.m., the tower air traffic controller cleared SkyWest Airlines flight 5741, an Embraer 120 arriving from Modesto, California, to land on runway 28R. Forgetting about the arrival aeroplane, the same controller then cleared Republic Airlines flight 4912, an Embraer 170 departing for Los Angeles, to take off from runway 1L, which intersects runway 28R.

After the SkyWest airliner touched down, the Airport Movement Area Safety System alerted and the air traffic controller transmitted “Hold, Hold, Hold” to the SkyWest flight crew in an attempt to stop the aircraft short of runway 1L. The SkyWest crew applied maximum braking that resulted in the aeroplane stopping in the middle of runway 1L. As this was occurring, the captain of Republic Airlines flight 4912 took control of the aircraft from the first officer, realized the aircraft was traveling too fast to stop, and initiated an immediate takeoff. According to the crew of SkyWest 5741, the Republic Airlines aircraft overflew theirs by 30- 50ft. The FAA has categorized the incident as an operational error.

The NTSB sent an investigator to San Francisco, who collected radar data, recorded air traffic control (ATC) communications, and flight crew statements, and interviewed ATC personnel.