Scary Incident at the Airport

[DonziDave]

I went to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport on Wednesday afternoon to pick up my girlfriend. I got there a liitle early, so I stopped at an overlook at the end of one of the runways to watch the planes until her flight got in. It was a really busy afternoon - planes were landing and taking off at a high rate. A US AIR plane was on final at about 300 ft altitude and about a half mile off the end of the runway, flaps full down, powered back, and coming down fast. All of a sudden a United plane that was staged on the taxiway pulled out onto the end of the runway for his takeoff. The United must of realized what he had done because he immediately began to roll down the runway and turned off at an emergency turnout about 200 yards down. However, the US AIR was already above him before he finished his turn. The US AIR firewalled the throttles, stood the plane on it's tail and went damn near vertical like a rocket. I can imagine what went through the minds of the passengers who had no knowledge of what was happening when instead of landing they were suddenly on an "E" ticket ride at Disneyland....!!!!
Don't know if it was a screw-up by the tower or a brain fart by the United pilot, but I'm sure there were several people filling out a bunch of reports.
Pretty scary scene with a ring side seat.

Dave

[BLACKIE]

That is what is known as a "Runway Incursion". It's probably one of the most common "Mistakes" made by pilots & controllers alike. There was a mis-understanding of the instructions given. This could be the pilots not hearing the instructions correctly or the controler simply issued the wrong instructions. This episode happened at a controlled airport. It's even worst at un-controlled fields. At a controlled field all pilots must read back every instruction given to them over the radio by the controllers. This is mandatory and its designed to catch any missunderstandings of the instructions. As a flight instructor I've been given materials and instructions by the FAA to use when giving instruction and biennial flight reviews to existing pilots. This is review material and includes radio phrasology, runway marking, and signage on the airport. Its amazing how many pilots I find that don't know what half of the signs in an airport environment mean. What you saw was a classic occurence and you can bet the pilots of the aircraft that taxied on to the active runway with another plane on final is going to get a license suspension and a good ass reaming from the chief pilot of his airline. No matter what the controllers tell you to do it's still the pilot in command (PIC) with the ultimate responsibility for what his aircraft is doing. He should have looked for an approaching aircraft before taxiing out onto the runway, even if the controller had told him to go. By the way it gets even more exciting at uncontrolled fields too. There are no controllers, just pilots following a set routine and flight path(followed at every airport) and announcing his intentions as he makes his turns in the landing pattern. It works well except when some bozos don't follow the rules by not talking on the radio or following standard airport procedures. :banghead: