Two planes, one passenger and one cargo, avoided colliding in the fog by just fifty feet at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The reflexes of the cargo plane pilot prevented what could have been the first fatal plane crash in the United States in fourteen years and saved the lives of 131 people.
The incident, which occurred on February 4, 2023, is the subject of an investigation by the NTSB, the US National Transportation Safety Agency, and has motivated lengthy discussions and criticism since last spring. But now a long investigation by the New York Times highlights the chain of errors, attributed in particular to air traffic controllers and to which are added the airport’s infrastructure failures.
On February 4, at 6:34 a.m., unusual fog covered areas of the Austin airport. A FedEx cargo Boeing 767, with three people on board, approaches the airfield. At the same time, a Boeing 737 from Southwest, the world’s largest low-cost airline, with 123 passengers, 2 pilots and 3 flight attendants approaches from runway 18 to take off for Cancun, Mexico.
“This is FedEx 1432,” they say to the control tower from the cockpit of the Boeing 767. “FedEx, cleared to land on runway 18 left,” says the controller. At 6:38 and 49 seconds – as stated in the preliminary investigation report – the co-pilot of the other flight, the Southwest flight, informed the same controller that they were approaching runway 18 left and that they were ready to take off. “You are authorized to take off,” they tell him from the tower, “there is traffic three miles away from you, a Boeing 767 is arriving.” The device, at one end of the runway, is ready to power its engines.
Less than a minute later, at 6:39 and 32 seconds, the FedEx pilots ask the tower for confirmation to land on runway 18 left. The captain of the cargo plane explained to investigators that he asked because he was concerned that the Southwest plane would stop on the runway as they were descending. The controller confirms clearance to land. At 6:40 and 12 seconds the FedEx flight is 1.1 kilometers from the runway, while the controller asks the Southwest pilots if they are leaving, receiving a confirmation.
But when the cargo plane is 46 meters above sea level and about 400 meters from the runway, pilots can see better in the fog and notice the silhouette of the Southwest Boeing 737 still on the strip of asphalt. The risk of collision is very high because the passenger plane has just departed and runs the risk of being “crushed” by the descending cargo plane. “Stop takeoff!” FedEx pilots order their Southwest colleagues at 6:40 and 34 seconds as they set the engine power to postpone the landing. “We’re leaving,” FedEx says three seconds later. Soon after, Southwest took off anyway.
When the collision was avoided, the two planes were 15 meters apart – the distance between the FedEx landing gear and the Southwest tail – according to the FAA (the Federal Aviation Administration), while the document The NTSB speaks of 61 meters. However, according to the New York Times, confusion reigns in the tower. The air traffic controller mistakenly thinks that it is the pilots of the passenger plane who have asked to stop the takeoff, when this is not the case. When the FedEx cargo flight lands a few minutes later, the controller addresses the pilots: “We apologize, we appreciate your professionalism.” Passengers aboard the Southwest flight notice nothing, landing safely in Mexico.
The American newspaper The New York Times says that the air traffic controller should have stayed home that day because he planned to rest. But one of the tower managers had asked him to resume service because there was a staff shortage. And, indeed, that morning there were only two people managing traffic at the airport, where movements increased by 50% compared to the pre-Covid period. He supervised takeoffs and landings, the other colleague followed the ground movements of the planes. (The Federal Aviation Administration maintains that there was no staffing shortage that day.)
However, there are other problems, in addition to those of personnel, that concern the Austin-Bergstrom airport: “The lack of technology that allows controllers to follow planes on the ground and warn of impending collisions,” reports The New York Times. “The result is that on foggy days controllers can’t always see what’s happening on runways and taxiways. Some have even resorted to using a public flight tracking website instead of radar” (Flightradar24 ), which however is not authorized by regulators.
For months, American newspapers have been highlighting the lack of personnel inside US control towers. Of 313 facilities, only five have a sufficient number of controllers, according to the most up-to-date data (there were three in May). This has led to recording, since the pandemic ended and Americans began traveling en masse again, at least two “near misses” every week, that is, too close encounters between planes within the operating area of an airport.