Close call at O'Hare shows need for fix
Normally, a bird strike on a jetliner is a traumatic but not catastrophic occurrence at O'Hare International Airport.
But on July 19, one of those common incidents set off a chain reaction that brought two commercial jets to within seconds and 70 feet of colliding.
About 10:22 a.m. that day, a regional jet powered off the runway and hit birds as it climbed into the air. A Boeing 737-300 waiting in line behind the jet asked crews to check the runway for any resulting debris that could choke its engines or affect its wheels.
The 737 was then told to leave the runway and head to a taxiway called S-4. Instead, the pilot moved the plane to a nearby taxiway called Quebec -- right in the path of another Boeing 737-300 in the process of landing.
Controllers in the tower quickly issued an emergency order to the incoming plane to abort its landing, and the jet pulled out of its descent, sheering just 70 feet above the waiting Boeing 737-300.
The nail-biting close call will go down in the books among some of the worst in O'Hare's history. Last year, a large jet came within 35 feet of hitting another in a somewhat similar incident.
Close calls like these are not immediately reported to the public and often are available only when the Federal Aviation Administration is questioned about them.
The lone "high risk" near collision this year tarnishes a so-far better safety record at O'Hare than last year's three high-level near collisions. But it also underscores how difficult it is to account for and prevent all the various human and mechanical errors that can lead to catastrophes.
The July 19 near collision ultimately was blamed on the pilot who changed runways, who was not named in the report. The FAA refused to release the names of the airlines involved.
National Transportation Safety Board and FAA officials have made preventing near accidents on airport runways one of their top priorities for more than decade. Still, the needed technology appears to be lacking to patch all the perceived holes in the aviation industry's safety net.
For example, after several years of numerous runway close calls on O'Hare's crisscrossing landing strips, the FAA installed a new multi-million dollar ground radar system this month to provide better warnings of such incidents to air traffic controllers.
Still, Joseph Bellino, head of the air traffic controllers union at O'Hare, said that system wouldn't have helped in this latest situation.
The new system detects near collisions on runways. The 737-300 in the path of the landing jet was actually on a taxiway in front of the runway.
Meanwhile, the FAA is overseeing tests of a new system that sends audio warnings of pending collisions straight into the cockpit. That product is years away, even if it wins the agency's final approval.
FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said reducing near collisions on runways will take multiple approaches and an ongoing effort.
"Runway incursions occur for a variety of reasons," she said. "This is something we take very, very seriously."