Turboprop narrowly misses hitting jet at SFO
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, June 11, 2007
sfgate_get_fprefs(); (06-11) 11:50 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Two passenger planes almost collided, missing each other by only 50 feet, at San Francisco International Airport because of a controller's mistake two weeks ago, federal investigators said today.
The pilot of a Republic Airlines jetliner took off earlier than planned when he noticed the smaller, arriving SkyWest Airlines turboprop in its path on an intersecting runway, according to a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board today.
There were no injuries to the 27 people on board the two planes, authorities said.
The May 26 incident, known as a runway incursion, underscores the dangers at San Francisco airport, where arriving flights land on two parallel runways that cross a second set of parallel departure runways at a 90-degree angle.
At 1:36 p.m. the air traffic controller cleared a SkyWest Embraer 120 Brasilia turboprop plane, arriving from Modesto, to land on runway 28-Right.
The controller then forgot about that plane and cleared a Republic Airlines Embraer 170 to take off for Los Angeles on runway 1-Left, which intersects runway 28-Right, the report said.
After the SkyWest plane touched down, a safety system in the tower known as AMASS -- for Airport Movement Area Safety System -- alerted the controller of the problem.
The controller then got on the radio and said, "Uh, SkyWest, Hold, Hold, Hold" to the SkyWest flight crew in hopes of stopping the plane short of runway 1-Left, the report said.
As this was happening, the captain of the Republic Airlines jet took control of the aircraft from the plane's first officer after realizing that the aircraft was traveling too fast to stop and immediately pulled up for takeoff, earlier than planned, the report said.
The planes missed each other by 30 to 50 feet, said the crew aboard the SkyWest plane, which came to a stop in the intersection of runways 1-Left and 28-Right. The Republic Airlines crew estimated that the two planes had been 150 feet apart, adding however that the figure was a "guess" because they couldn't see the smaller plane during the takeoff.
No one was injured.
The controller has been working for the Federal Aviation Administration since 1988 and has been certified as an SFO tower controller since 1999. After last month's incident, the controller was decertified, required to complete additional training and then recertified by FAA management, the report said.
The AMASS system provides an alert 15 seconds before the aircraft "reach the conflict point, and the system performed as designed," the report said.
SFO spokesman Mike McCarron declined to comment on the report today, saying the FAA has sole oversight of the nation's air traffic control system.
On a normal day at SFO, planes take off to the east on runway 1-Left or 1-Right. Arriving planes, meanwhile, approach from the south and usually land on runways 28-Left and 28-Right. The incoming planes must clear the intersection of the two sets of runways before controllers clear departing planes for takeoff.
SFO records about 360,000 flights each year. It reported two runway incursions in 2001, four in 2002 and three each in the years since except for 2005, when figures weren't available, according to the FAA. Including last month's near-miss, there have been three incidents so far this year at the airport.
But none of the incidents was classified as Category A or Category B, the two most serious designations. All of them were deemed Category C and D, meaning the chances of a crash were remote.
Last month's incident hasn't been classified yet, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said today.
Los Angeles International Airport typically reports the most runway incursions in the state each year.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at [email protected].
