Southwest and FedEx Near Crash in Austin

ATC cleared Southwest to takeoff in Austin when FedEx was on short final to landing.

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[pilot-debrief]

Southwest NEVER should have been cleared for takeoff. It doesn't matter what the controller assumed about how fast Southwest moved. Based on FedEx's reported location, the tower controller should have told Southwest to continue holding. When he didn't do that, he could have saved the day by directing FedEx to go around and he didn't. They got lucky.

[toddcorm]

ATC Instructor guy here. I appreciate your comments about SWA moving quickly and all the controller was trying to do was we call a “squeeze play.” However, without knowing the waivers at Austin the controller was at fault for several reasons:

1. Even VFR, which it wasn’t, trying to push out a departure in front of a heavy on 3-mile final won’t work.

2. The controller violated the ILS Critical Area for a CAT III approach. You don’t put someone in position in front of a CAT III, unless you have specific procedures for this.

3. In the event of a Go Around, which happened here, the controller does not have the required radar separation. Heck, they didn’t even have runway separation!! Obviously this was never going to work regardless of the airlines involved.

[bsmith]

As an air traffic controller, I have to say that this was a borderline insane clearance from the tower. We have Cat 3 operations at Vancouver, where I worked for many years, and the minimum arrival/departure separation is that a departure must be AIRBORNE before the CAT 2/3 arrival is FOUR miles from touchdown. Southwest would also have been holding at the CAT 2/3 hold line, which is farther from the runway. There is zero chance that the operation would have been possible. Bizarre.

[DouglasHaney]

Kelsey, great review, but as a retired Fedex captain, I can say you missed one critical system that Fedex airplanes have to improve the pilot's vision in low-visibility situations that probably played an important part in this event. Almost all Fedex airplanes have in the Captain's seat a Heads Up Displays with an Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS), that displays imagery in the HUD from a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera. The camera is located above the radar on the nose of the aircraft. This system greatly increases the captain's visibility in fog, smog, or smoke, especially when looking at an aircraft from the rear when looking at the engine exhaust. I don't know for sure, but I would bet that the Fedex captain ended up seeing the Southwest airplane in his HUD using the EFVS.

[HikingBob]

I'm an ex-USAF ARFF firefighter, so while not a pilot, I spent a lot of time on runways, taxiways, etc and listening to ATC radio traffic. What I did not hear the controller say to the SWA flight was "without delay" when he cleared them to take off. Two words that could have conveyed to the SWA pilot he needed to do as SWA normally does, and move quickly. I've heard ATC give this instruction many times, either to get ground equipment off runways/taxiways, or to get aircraft out of the way of other aircraft.

[dadbackwards]

Hello Kelsey. I have been a controller since 1985, a USAF Rapcon, and 2 FAA facilities. I understand everything you said, and it makes sense from where you sit. But, when the field is IFR, ATC has a 2 mile increasing to 3 rule. The tower controller can clear an aircraft for takeoff in front of an arriving aircraft to the same runway, but you must have 2 miles between a/c at all times, and the situation must also increase to at least 3 miles within a minute after the departure. All this being said, there is NO way the tower controller would be able to comply with our rules in this situation. Impossible with a 767 on a 3 mile final, and the 737 holding short. This may have "worked" if the 737 was already in position. The tower controller is 100% to blame. Did the FDX pilot confuse/complicate the matter, hell yes. You are absolutely right about SWA being fast, but in this situation, the tower can't even see the SWA jet, so how can you give him the benefit of the doubt, especially when we have a hard and fast line the controller crossed. I was literally stunned after listening to this after it happened.

[echobeefpv]

Gotta say, Kelsey, the animations and airport layouts really help. The editing improvements are much appreciated !!

[bisbonian]

I flew for an airline for 27 years and 23, 000 hrs...you do a fantastic job of explaining all these incidents. I applaud your knowledge, and willingness to share it. Plus it's fun to sit back and remember.

[rogermacdearmid]

As a Safety Professional in industrial settings, we would call this a “Major Near Miss”. It would be handle, and investigated as if it was an actual incident with either injury or property damage. In essence, it’s a freebie. You get to investigate with the intention of improving your safety systems, without having to do so as the result of actual losses.

[hLoops]

As a Tower ATCO myself I have to state (as others already did) that the take-off clearance was absolutely nuts. I don't know the exact low visibility procedures at Austin, but even in the best weather conditions a standard take-off clearance for a plane not already lined-up when a landing one is at 3 NM final is pretty ambitious. 3 NM is roughly 1 min of time until touchdown and a non-rolling take-off from a holding point takes min. 1 min for a 737, often even a little longer with the clearance readbacks etc. Long story short: there's very little room for error in that situation and with low visibility it's extremely dangerous because of that.

[abikeanditsboy]

ATC totally messed that one up. They cleared a plane to land on a 3 mile final and then cleared a plane to take off on the same runway. Since there is no specified time for a plane to take off it was just plain irresponsible on the part of ATC to assume that SouthWest will hustle as usual, especially since it was cloudy and foggy. Terrible job by ATC.

[OGA]

Damn, the calm professionalism on everyone's part was seriously impressive. If I hadn't known the context of the recordings I never would have thought that a catastrophy was only narrowly avoided.

[bobbyc]

my dad was an air traffic controller in the US Air Force during the Vietnam war, I never really understood what he did and when I was a really young kid I remember thinking it wasn't one of the "cool" jobs the Air Force had, but as I've gotten older (I'm only 29, he was 49 when I was born) I think it's cool as hell. I've been watching these videos for a couple years now and it just occurred to me to go ask him what it was like back then working at several different very busy US air bases clearing B52's, F4-C Phantoms, big C130's, and the works for landings, takeoffs, and directing aerial refuelings and formations to and from bases. Now that this stuff is as interesting to me as it is, I want to ask him how they did it back then, like what equipment they used. He always wrote in all capital letters and told me that was from his time doing ATC for the USAF and he wrote his "E's" like backwards "3's" and certain letters very differently than I did and used the least amount of strokes possible for writing "4's" and stuff like that, telling me that's how they taught him to write fast and legibly for them as he was hearing radio transmissions coming in from different pilots. He also said he lost a lot of his hearing because certain high ranking officers flying F4's would buzz the tower going supersonic sometimes and it was loud as hell. After finding your videos on ATC and other channel's videos on ATC working under stress and helping emergency aircraft I have a new found respect for what he did, and I thank you for that. When I was a kid, I never understood how crazy and stressful it must have been to have been guiding a limping aircraft back to base who was hit by some big guns and had pieces (or entire) wings missing, sometimes were on fire, or they got hit and their electronics and controls stopped working so they couldn't find their way back to base at night and they had to guide them in by radar and then turn on lights so the plane could find their way to the ground, then sometimes rush out crewmen as they crash landed sometimes, which at some bases the ATC guys would be expected to go out and help fight a fire and help the pilot out, and before major missions they would also help the ground crewmen go load the planes up with bombs, ammo for guns, rockets, fuel, etc. What a crazy job to have and I want to go ask him all about it the next time I see him.

[FaradayBananacage]

The last time I flew Southwest we hit some turbulence and the "put your butts back in your seats" light came on. People ignored that because they had urgent business elsewhere.

Then the main flight attendant, who looked and sounded a lot like Woody Harrelson, stood up in the front of the cabin and made it clear he wasn't joking.

"Get back in your seats before I come back there and make you do it."

It wasn't exactly that, but it was close. And I totally respect that guy.

Southwest is... different.

[FazeICEY]

Kelsey, you are correct in saying that you can squeeze a plane out with another on a 3 mile final(especially southwest), but as controllers, we need to apply the 2 increasing to 3 rule when IFR conditions. Unless southwest had one of the fastest takeoff rolls in aviation history, the controller was never going to be legal

[quackers]

As an ATC myself I appreciate you trying to give us as much benefit of the doubt as possible hereZ With that being said…this is 100% on the controller and is unacceptable 🤷🏻‍♂️

If he needed an immediate departure he should’ve said cleared for immediate take off. With low vis like this he wasn’t being as exact as he could’ve been. Also, this controller has a reputation of not being top notch. So not too surprising

[fallandbounce]

Thank you for posting a great example of how actual adults handle a stressful situation in a positive and constructive manner.

[eannliska]

The way the fedex pilot says "heavy" makes me so happy 😄

Also, Southwest's reputation is why my school joked about taxi speed Vsw, my favorite unpublished V speed

[laurena.]

I have a lot of internalised anxiety about airplanes. No idea why, and I'm not that scared while flying in real life, but I have a ton of nightmares about planes. When it starts acting up again, I always come to watch a few of your videos. It has helped me SO MUCH to learn about how many safety mechanisms are in place for planes, pilots, and air traffic control, and knowing that even when things do go a bit south, there is a whole group of people with protocols working to fix it really makes me less scared and also amazed and respectful of all people involved with flying :) thanks for the work that you do and the videos.

[pullt]

An understandable bit of voice fluttering on the "we appreciate your professionalism" call. I really appreciate the nuggets Kelsey gives on the importance of self awareness beyond the gritty mechanics of situational awareness.