Anyone see the near miss @ORD

[BankAccount=0$]

Just curious if anyone else saw the near miss at ORD yesterday afternoon about 4:10 pm. We were behind the PrivatAir AirBus on 4L and it didn't look like much more than a couple hundred feet before he would have hit the RJ on 9L. I'm not pointing any fingers or trying to place any blame, just curious how close they actually came to hitting each other in the intersection. Thank god somebody had a good angle to see both aircraft as they began their takeoff roll and got it out on the radio so that Privat was able to stop short of the intersection. I always hate departing off intersecting runways, especially when things are busy, and yesterday just enhances that feeling a little bit more.

Good job to both crews involved, and to who ever it was that got out the call that there was going to be a collision...........

 

[EagleRJ]

PrivatAir was taking off on 4L and someone told him to abort?

The simultaneous departures on 4L and 9L always struck me as a bad idea- especially at night. I would hope most pilots are aware of the traffic on the other runway as they begin to roll, and glance over their shoulder to make sure he's holding. It's the time no one looks that the Local controller will make a mistake and clear two planes to go at once.
Hopefully it will never happen, but it's a fundamentally risky practice, since it whittles down the layers of cross-checks to just one guy in the tower cab.

 

[BankAccount=0$]

PrivatAir was taking off on 4L and someone told him to abort?

The simultaneous departures on 4L and 9L always struck me as a bad idea- especially at night. I would hope most pilots are aware of the traffic on the other runway as they begin to roll, and glance over their shoulder to make sure he's holding. It's the time no one looks that the Local controller will make a mistake and clear two planes to go at once.
Hopefully it will never happen, but it's a fundamentally risky practice, since it whittles down the layers of cross-checks to just one guy in the tower cab.

yeah, the PrivatAir AirBus was departing 4L and the ERJ(united colors I think) was departing on 9L at the same time. We were next in line on 4L so all I saw was the AirBus lay on the brakes, and the ERJ go through the intersection. It was sort of strange to just watch a disaster almost happen, then hear a new calm voice on he freq. clear us for takeoff minutes later business as usual. And just out of curiousity, why does PrivatAir use a Lufthansa callsign??

 

[C601]

yeah, the PrivatAir AirBus was departing 4L and the ERJ(united colors I think) was departing on 9L at the same time. We were next in line on 4L so all I saw was the AirBus lay on the brakes, and the ERJ go through the intersection. It was sort of strange to just watch a disaster almost happen, then hear a new calm voice on he freq. clear us for takeoff minutes later business as usual. And just out of curiousity, why does PrivatAir use a Lufthansa callsign??

For some reason and I dont know they whole story, but they fly some 1st class and business class passengers for Lufthansa since 2002-2003, so its really a Lufthansa flight using PrivatAir aircraft.

 

[MJG]

I believe that Lufthansa owns the PrivateAir operating certificate. Hence Lufthansa crews fly the aircraft and use the "Lufthansa" callsign. Those things supposedly have 50 business first class seats, that's it. Wonder how much they pay their 50 seat pilots??

 

[siucavflight]

Wow, I was over ORD at 12.5 yesterday and saw this, the guy in the other seat yesterday even made the coment "what the hell was that" interesting read.

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Yep, happened again at ORD last Sunday the 26th. This time an A320 and a CRJ came within 1100' of each other. Same two runways 9L/4L. It is reported in today's Chicago Tribune that there have been 6 runway incurrsions in 2006, three of them in the last eight days. This compared to 7 at ORD in all of 2005. Watch out up there.

 

[DiverDriver]

What the heck is going on at ORD? I spent almost 6 years based there and NEVER had an issue with anything a controller did much less see a controller caused issue.

I still hold the ORD ground and tower controllers as the best anywhere. Possibly this is the same person involved in each instance?

 

[MGlobemaster]

yahoo

Apparently you guys weren't the only ones who noticed:

FAA Looks at Third Close Call at O'Hare

Wed Mar 29, 2:55 PM ET


Federal officials are investigating a third close call in less than a week involving planes at O'Hare International Airport.
On March 21, two planes were mistakenly instructed to take off at the same time on crisscrossing runways. Two days later, a plane was sent to taxi across a runway where another plane had already started its take-off roll.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which typically responds to fatal accidents, considered both significant enough to dispatch investigators to O'Hare.
The latest incident involved two commercial planes preparing to take off on crisscrossing runways Sunday.
An Airbus A320 plane had been cleared for takeoff but was told to abort four seconds later because another plane had been readying for takeoff on an intersecting runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said. FAA officials said Tuesday they were trying to determine whether the two planes got closer than allowed under federal rules.
Before last week, there had been four reported runway incursions at O'Hare in 2006, all ruled controller errors.
Last year, seven incursions were reported out of 972,246 flights, the FAA said. Five were caused by controller errors, one by pilot error and one from an errant vehicle.

 

[PC800]

Possibly this is the same person involved in each instance?

No. Controllers are immediately decertified in the wake of such incidents, and recertification takes some time. Each of the recent incidents that has made the news (and a fourth, which hasn't) involved different controllers.

All of the controllers involved (with the exception of a trainee who was under the direction of a certified controller) were veterans, not newbies-- they've all been certified at ORD for ten years or more.

There were two controllers (a local controller, and a monitor) in each instance, so that's eight decertified controllers. I expect NATCA will claim any new incidents are the result of inadequate staffing.