We’ve seen a scary number of close calls lately in commercial aviation, so here’s the latest example of that.
Continue reading: Alaska 737 Aborts Takeoff At High Speed, To Avoid Southwest 737
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
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Has te clearance to cross the runway been given by the same ATC controller as the TO clearance? If not then nobody learnt any lesson from the incidents in the past.
Surprised they have a Runway 13. Although yesterday it's appears very lucky indeed.
Air traffic controllers are paid very well. As much as seasoned airline pilots....over $130,000 a year.
It’s rare they use 13 at BNA. Was surprised they were using it given the winds weren’t that strong for a crosswind, and they were using the 20s for arrivals.
As I have repeatedly noted with other incidents, there are always 3 parties in these incidents - two pilot crews and one or more in ATC. In every case, 2 of the 3 parties realized the problem and averted disaster. In this case, it was the AS pilot crew and eventually ATC.
It is noteworthy how busy BNA is using intersecting runways.
The amount of mumbling during the call just stuns me. I cannot believe they are actually able to understand each other with words half-finished or unintelligible (to my untrained ears, of course). And the actual abort call was so nonchalant that it seems this happens every day, all day long, LOL.
@Ben can you please write a post explaining the different runway codes.
I have seen that many airports have the same numbers and I guess they mean something....
My understanding is that what we're hearing is chatter picked up via hobbyist receivers located near the airports in question; the transmissions are likely a good bit clearer over the actual comms equipment.
The numbers are the runway orientation. Runway 13 means that it's pointing towards 130° (with 0°/360° being North, 90° being East, 180° being South and 270° being West). When used in the opposite direction, it would be runway 31 because it's then pointing towards 310°. That's why, when crossing the runway, it's often referred to as "Runway 13/31" - because in that case both directions are affected.
Typically in case of several runways pointing to the same direction, you also have R (right), L (left) and C (center) appended to the number.
Ben doesn’t need to explain it. The are plenty of good explanations online. A fun one is CGP Grey’s YouTube video on the subject (The Simple Secret of Runway Digits).
Unfortunately, it almost always takes a major catastrophe and hundreds of death for there to be any kind of change.
Sometimes even that's not enough to bring about change (e.g. gun control).
Ben, is there an increase in these incidents recently? Are the numbers available?
Good point about using intersecting runways Tim. Perhaps Alaska wanted 13 because it’s longer than the other runways or maybe Southwest was requesting a different runway because that’s what Southwest likes to do. Regardless of the reason, with the current challenges the ATC system is facing, using intersecting runways should be kept to a minimum.
BNA uses the 2/20 runways exclusively the vast majority of the time. 13/31 is usually only used when it's needed for crosswind or for its additional length. The remnants of a hurricane were affecting the area at the time of this incident, so 13 may have been used due to crosswind.
Any airport that has a runway aligned roughly 130 degrees magnetic heading has a runway 13. It's not like hotel floor numbers or airline row numbers where it can be arbitrary. Runway numbers indicate the heading of the runway.
Eventually most carrerr airline pilots will have this happen. I have, more than once. That’s why you pay attention.
Runway numbers are compass points rounded to the nearest 10 degrees with the last digit removed eg. a runway orientated east-west (ie. 90-270) degrees would be runway 9-27. An aircraft departing east on this runway would be using runway 9 while one departing west would be using runway 27
The ATC system has never fully recovered since Reagan fired the PATCO controllers in 1981. There was so much job intelligence lost and experience that wasn't passed down..