Qantas plane has to compete with car on runway

Wednesday, 04 Feb, 2008 0

A news.com.au report says that a Qantas 737 trying to land at one of Australia’s biggest airports almost had to compete for runway space with a car, because the air traffic controller “forgot” to tell the driver to move away.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation into the November 21, 2006, incident at Brisbane Airport revealed that a Qantas aeroplane was given the all-clear for landing, while a car was on the runway.

The driver of the car was clearing debris caused by strong winds from the runway at the time of the incident.

“The (aerodrome controller) reported that he may have momentarily forgotten about the vehicle,” an ATSB report said.

“The (controller) did not initially issue instructions to the vehicle driver, or adequately monitor the situation, to ensure that the vehicle vacated the runway strip so that separation was assured with the 737.”

The report said the controller did not tell the driver to move until a pilot called him to say the car was on the runway.

During the ATSB investigation, the pilot of the 737 told officials that while he was preparing to land, he remembered hearing about a car being allowed on the runway.

“The (pilot) recalled that he and the co-pilot had turned to each other and stated something like ‘is there a vehicle on the runway still?’,” the report said.

“Before they could query the (controller), a pilot of another aircraft transmitted ‘vehicle on runway’.

“The (pilot) recalled that the (controller) immediately told the driver of the vehicle to vacate onto the grass, before reissuing the landing clearance.”

Although the ATSB found that the controller did not breach any procedural requirements, he did tell investigators he would not issue another landing clearance while a car was on a runway.

“(The controller said) he would be reluctant to use the procedure in future and would withhold a landing clearance until after he had instructed, and observed a vehicle vacate a runway strip.”

A Report by The Mole from news.com.au