US NTSB releases preliminary report on near-miss in Austin
The US NTSB has issued a preliminary report of a near-miss involving a Fedex Boeing 777-300ER and a Southwest Airlines 737 in Austin last month. On 4 February, a FedEx aircraft descended toward an active runway before breaking off its approach due to departing traffic on the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration and flight data from FlightAware showed. At the time, data estimated the distance between the aircraft to have been less than 200ft. The US safety agency says in its report published on 2 March that the incident involved an “overflight that resulted in a loss of separation” between the two aircraft, but “the closest proximity has not yet been determined”. The incident took place early in the morning, when, according to air traffic control, “there was an extremely low traffic volume and complexity” at Austin Bergstrom International airport. The weather at the time was “low instrument flight rules”, meaning both aircraft had limited horizontal and vertical visibility. The incident involved FedEx flight 1432, a 767 with registration N297FE, and Southwest flight 708, a 737-700 registered N7827A. The FedEx jet took off from Memphis that morning at about 06:21 Eastern US time and flew the roughly 486nm (900km) to Memphis, flight tracking data shows. The Southwest aircraft was bound for Cancun. At about 06:40 Central US time, when the FedEx freighter was “several miles from” Austin’s airport, controllers cleared its pilots to land on Austin’s Runway 18L. The Southwest aircraft was cleared for take-off on the same runway. “According to the captain of FDX1432, he noted that, at an altitude of about 150ft, the [first officer] called go-around after visually seeing SWA708 at approximately 1,000ft to 1,500ft from the approach end of the runway,” NTSB says. “At 0640:34, one of the FDX1432 crew broadcasted ‘Southwest abort’, and then at 06:40:37 broadcasted that ‘FedEx is on the go.’” “A review of preliminary Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast data revealed that when FDX1432 was at the departure end of the runway climbing out of 1,900ft, the controller instructed FDX1432 to turn left heading 080 and maintain 3,000ft. At the same time, SWA708 was about 1,000ft lower than FDX1432 and began a right turn away from the runway heading,” NTSB writes.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-03-03/general/us-ntsb-releases-preliminary-report-on-near-miss-in-austin
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
US NTSB releases preliminary report on near-miss in Austin
The US NTSB has issued a preliminary report of a near-miss involving a Fedex Boeing 777-300ER and a Southwest Airlines 737 in Austin last month. On 4 February, a FedEx aircraft descended toward an active runway before breaking off its approach due to departing traffic on the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration and flight data from FlightAware showed. At the time, data estimated the distance between the aircraft to have been less than 200ft. The US safety agency says in its report published on 2 March that the incident involved an “overflight that resulted in a loss of separation” between the two aircraft, but “the closest proximity has not yet been determined”. The incident took place early in the morning, when, according to air traffic control, “there was an extremely low traffic volume and complexity” at Austin Bergstrom International airport. The weather at the time was “low instrument flight rules”, meaning both aircraft had limited horizontal and vertical visibility. The incident involved FedEx flight 1432, a 767 with registration N297FE, and Southwest flight 708, a 737-700 registered N7827A. The FedEx jet took off from Memphis that morning at about 06:21 Eastern US time and flew the roughly 486nm (900km) to Memphis, flight tracking data shows. The Southwest aircraft was bound for Cancun. At about 06:40 Central US time, when the FedEx freighter was “several miles from” Austin’s airport, controllers cleared its pilots to land on Austin’s Runway 18L. The Southwest aircraft was cleared for take-off on the same runway. “According to the captain of FDX1432, he noted that, at an altitude of about 150ft, the [first officer] called go-around after visually seeing SWA708 at approximately 1,000ft to 1,500ft from the approach end of the runway,” NTSB says. “At 0640:34, one of the FDX1432 crew broadcasted ‘Southwest abort’, and then at 06:40:37 broadcasted that ‘FedEx is on the go.’” “A review of preliminary Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast data revealed that when FDX1432 was at the departure end of the runway climbing out of 1,900ft, the controller instructed FDX1432 to turn left heading 080 and maintain 3,000ft. At the same time, SWA708 was about 1,000ft lower than FDX1432 and began a right turn away from the runway heading,” NTSB writes.<br/>
