How One Mans Quick Thinking Saved 381 Lives | Logan Airport Incursion

This is the story of the logan airport runway incursion on the 9th of june 2005, an aer lingus a330 was to fly from boston to shannon in ireland. At the same time A us air 737 was also on the ground at boston and it was bound for philadelphia. The airport at boston is massive. The airport has 6 runways. That day runways 4R and 4L were being used for landing land and runways 15R and 9 were used for departures. Handling all of the traffic is a massive task and so the complex task of controlling everything is split up. In simple terms you had two mini ATCs at the airport: the Boston local east controller was responsible for runways 4R and 9 and the Boston local west controller was responsible for runways 15R and 4L.

On that day the west controller was responsible for aer lingus flight 132 and the east controller was responsible for Us air flight 1170. As the time for departure grew near the aer lingus a330 made its way to runway 15R. At the same time the US air 737 was making its way to runway 9 on the other side of the airport.

At 7:39 pm and 10 seconds the controller gave the all clear for the A330 to takeoff, the pilots of the aer lingus jet started rolling and jst 5 seconds later the east controller cleared the 737 to take off from runway 09. Both jets started picking up speed down the runway. The first officer in the 737 called V1 and then noticed the a330 who was starting to rotate. Something had gone terribly wrong as both jets hurtled towards the intersection. The first officer analysed the situation in them little time that he had. What could be done to avoid a collision? Do they try and takeoff early? Do they try to keep the plane on the ground? Do they hit the brakes? Do they turn the plane into the grass? So many choices yet so little time.

He said to his captain to keep it down, as he pushed the yoke forward. To stop the plane from lifting off. As both planes merged in the intersection the Aer lingus A330 flew above the 737 barely missing it. Once they had passed the intersection the 737 lifted off with no issues the crew of the 737 got on the frequency and told departure control that they had a near miss. A transmission came in from the a330 saying we concur.

The report says that both planes were very close and that is corroborated by an animation that was put out by the NTSB at their nearest point they were just a few hundred feet apart. At the speeds that those planes were traveling at those distances would have been covered in the blink of an eye. The V1 speed for a 737 is about 145 knots. I know that it depends on a lot of factors but lets take 145 as a figure that is representative of the speeds that are encountered during takeoff. At 145 knots you’re covering 244 feet every second. The A330 was even faster as it had already taken off. Had the first officer not had the presence of mind to keep the 737 down then this could have been bad. How bad you ask? Well the 737 had 109 people on board and the a330 had 272 people on board for a total of 381 people. Yeah it could have been bad.

But how could this happen? There are procedures in place to prevent exactly something like this. As we talked about before operations at Boston was split between two controllers: the east controller and the west controller. The west controller was responsible for the A330 and the east controller was responsible for the 737. Now since the runways intersect the controllers need to

[PavlosPapageorgiou]

I like the idea of winning the superior airmanship medal by staying on the ground.

[anthonywalker]

I love how you show close calls instead of always disasters, still very interesting

[garrettb.-gtmkm]

I love Boston airport, but use of converging runways at the same time is an accident waiting to happen on a busy day. This could have been another Tenerife, very close call.

[pickles]

Thank you for covering incidents where there are no or very few fatalities or injuries. I find it really gruesome when I see someone comment, "Oh, it's just a Cessna with 5 fatalities? BOORING!" Like they want another Tenerife to happen. I am way more interested in the HOW and WHY of the incidents. It's a fun way to learn about air safety and you don't have to feel badly for lives lost -- or at least so many. I am so glad I won't have to spend the rest of my evening feeling badly for those lives lost in this accident.

[Dana_Danarosana]

Damn! That's just nuts! HUGE credit to the USAir flight crew! I'd never heard of this incident before... Thank you for sharing it with us!

[jpoconnor]

Another near miss in Boston, roughly in the same era: Seated on the left side of a full Delta 767, we were quite low (but on the glide slope) on final approach not far from the approach end of RWY 33L. I heard and felt the landing gear coming up - while we were still descending - and the engines starting to spool up. In short order, we were pressed into our seats (more than on a normal takeoff or go around) as the pilots tried to build every bit of airspeed and altitude they could find. It was obvious the throttles were as far forward as possible. Knowing the airport layout, I suspected the worst. Sure enough, as I saw RWY 04R-22L cross under us, another large airliner taking off on 22L crossed just under us. There was very little vertical separation and no horizontal separation. In short order we were leveled off and a few minutes later the captain came on the intercom. He was professional though obviously agitated. He informed us the other aircraft was incorrectly cleared for takeoff well after we were cleared for landing… and that after the completion of our flight they would be filing a report with the FAA! Good thing our pilots were alert.

[Kris-qrhw]

Wow, seems like a bad idea to have two controllers for intersecting runways

[briant]

Superior airmanship for staying on the ground! Absolutely deserved!

[kevinbarry]

10 years ago? Wait until you are 50, then it will seem like 10 minutes ago

[TimothyChapman]

I remember hearing about this incident on the news. Had the pilot of the 737 not been paying attention, the FAA would be investigating a debris field instead.

[TheNewAccount]

Great job by the US Air crew.
As for the problem: There is a "concrete solution" for that: Don't build intersecting runways. And if you absolutely have to, design the airport in a way that those runways can be handled by the same controller.

[BillyAlabama]

Your narrative is so nice. If you use a technical word most won’t know you explain it. Your friendly tone makes it feel as though we are all having a private chat with you.

[max]

No idea how it's done now, but as a British military controller in the 1990s, when on tower control we used to have a large airfield diagram on the desk in front of us, and used labelled counters for the callsigns on frequency. Flight strips were only used downstairs on the radar consoles.We'd move the counters according to aircraft positions and clearances given and as an extra safety measure in our local control we had a lump of metal about the size of a spectacle case, covered in dayglow orange tape that we'd place on the diagram active runway when any aircraft or vehicle was cleared to cross or use it. Not very subtle, but it worked!! :D

[davidbeckenbaugh]

This is one of my favorite examples of crew management. I have always remembered the 1st officer as saying "I have the airplane" and the pilot saying (with no argument) 'you have the plane' and the first officer holding it down. But MACI has it correctly that the 1st officer told the pilot to hold it down and physically pushed the stick himself. So the real hero is the 1st officer for doing his job and watching what was going on. A lot of pilots just watch what is directly in front of them, but he did not. He was looking around. And the air crew management came into play as the pilot did not argue. THEY TRUSTED EACH OTHER. This reaches all the way back to the Tenerife accident and the lessons learned in crew management. One of the crew in the KLM had not heard them get clearance for take off in the thick fog and asked the pilot if clearance had been given. The pilot said it had been and that was it. YOU DID NOT ARGUE WITH THE PILOT. And two 747's collided on the ground. KLM now has the procedure that any one of the flight crew can abort a take off, no argument. I assume all other companies do, too. I am trying to think what the airline was for the pilot who aborted a takeoff much too late, and the check pilot had STARTED to override him, but trusted him. The elevators had just been serviced and they felt wrong. The pilot felt it when they tried to rotate and KNEW the airplane would not fly. And the check pilot trusted him. Good crew management. By the way, folks, I am NOT a pilot so if I made mistakes, sorry. Please be gentle with your corrections....

[TheLastPhoenx]

"How bad could it have been?"

Tenerife bad?

[dayfamily]

As an ATC with a CTO with intersecting RW we had a switch we flipped that would cause a red light to illuminate letting the other controller know I was using the RW. I don’t know if that airport had ground radar but that could help with congestion and situational awareness. BZ to the crew to make such a quick decision!

[BobbyGeneric]

Runway Status Lights seem to be the best technology solution to me... Its an automated system that the controller cannot override. If we have red status lights, it doesn't matter if there's not another plane for a hundred miles, we can't take off. This system, in conjunction with the human procedures, seems to be the best at the moment.

[bobjohnbowles]

I recall learning how in the early days of train transport drivers had to hand over a baton to the signalman after clearing a section of track, and the signalman could not authorise (hand over the baton to) another driver until then. I believe a more high-tech version of the same thing is still used on the railways. I imagine a similar system would work well at a busy airport.

[esphilee]

Can’t imagine what if the first officer of the a330 said “keep it down..” too.

[roadsage]

Wow, they decided to divide the work into two ATCs. So now they don't only have to coordinate with planes but with each other too.