Air traffic controllers report near-collision at JFK

[brooklynite]

Source: Crain's New York Business

(AP) - Air traffic controllers say two planes — one departing and one landing — came within about 100 feet of a collision at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport over the weekend.

Cayman Airways Flight 792 executed a routine "go-around" — pulling up at the last minute instead of landing — around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said.

Meanwhile, LAN-Chile Flight 533 was leaving from a perpendicular runway. The NATC spokesman said the controller ordered the inbound pilot to take a hard left and the outbound a hard right, avoiding a collision.






Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080707/FREE/381342576/1066

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And it only took 3 days to get reported? Amazing...

Actually, I've seen this section of runway, and you'll regularly have one arriving jet decelerating on one runway while another plane is on final approach on for the second. ATC seems to work on the assumption that the first plane can clear the runway before things get dicey.

[dbonds]

1. Not a near miss - That was a NEAR HIT.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. True that. n/t

[gateley]

3. Yeah - the 'near miss' that's become part of our vocabulary

sounds like a Frank Lutz gem. Another phrase to give us the WRONG impression.

[Javaman]

11. exactly...

you never hear anyone say, "damn, that thing near missed me!"

[gateley]

4. In the old days when you could listen to the pilots talking to the tower,

I recall once in O'Hare the controller going "United One Heavy you're cleared to land on xxx, but exit IMMEDIATELY as you've got a Continental 727 coming in right after you." EVERY communication was like this -- there was absolutely no room for error, and even if things went according to plan, there was just too much traffic coming and going at a volume to be safe.

[gateley]

5. The FAA is in pitiable shape.

Air traffic controllers are quitting and retiring in droves - no qualified replacements want the job. Their hours are beyond what they should be working in order to be alert, their equipment is dated and they've had funding cut.

The thing that so surprises me about this, is that the Congress/Senate fly in these planes and in and out of these airports too! If it was only we little people who were affected I'd see them not caring, but since this affects them, too... :shrug:

[libnnc]

7. thank you

my SO is an ATCer at CLT (Charlotte) and she's been in the agency over 20 years. Needless to say she's counting the days until she retires.

The FAA likes to portray controllers as overpaid, lazy civil servants who should be grateful for such wonderful working conditions.

Charlotte is losing 10 controllers this year to retirement...the kids taking their place are way too green. Most wash out before they get checked out. Morale is pretty low right now.

[gateley]

10. Yes - I think they're getting a bum deal

and the controllers are often used as scapegoats.

Recently when the airline had to stop flights because inspections hadn't been made -- I blamed the government for that, too. They are not funding the FAA as they should be (among many other agencies they're letting slide).

Hope her retirement is on the horizon -- and I'll think of her next time I'm going to or passing through CLT!

[windbreeze]

8. obviously it has NOT affected them in any way

that leaves a serious impression...you know, of the kind that causes consternation, and therefore gets action...How many would have to lose their lives before it might get to that stage?...wb

[libnnc]

6. Not a whole lot of info in that story

did the pilot lay an egg on the runway instead of getting the hell out of the way so the other could land?

[Scairp]

9. Glad I didn't hear about this until today

My family and I just flew out of JFK yesterday morning and this would have completely freaked me out. I don't much like flying and I really don't like flying with my three year old, so this would have pushed me over the edge had I known about it before we boarded.

[Parche]

12. What Runway Was It?

They didnt mention that....:hi:

[MasonJar]

13. The air controllers are over worked and over booked, have been since

Reagan and his mass firings. But now it is getting treacherous.

[bluesmail]

14. Raygun, and the firing of air traffic controllers

He really did align himself with the breaking up of Unions. That pissed me off then and it pisses me off today. And the beat goes on...

[defendandprotect]

15. Dollar bills over human rights --- insanity reigns in America and capitalism . . .

[Hawkeye-X]

16. Holy hell. I landed in JFK Friday at 1:30

Didn't see anything like that...

Hawkeye-X