Southwest plane narrowly misses Baltimore ambulance at takeoff in another airport near-disaster

n y post ^ | 03/22/2023 | Yaron Steinbuch

[BenLurkin]

The Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting, or ARFF, vehicle crossed Runway 15R at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) without authorization on Jan. 12, DC News Now said Tuesday.

The Southwest Boeing 737 had just been cleared for takeoff from the same runway and missed the ambulance by less than half the length of a football field, the outlet reported.

“The closest estimated horizontal separation occurred at a distance of 173 feet,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in new analysis of the harrowing incident.

The ARFF driver was told to “hold short” of the runway, but read back the instruction as “ARFF 439 crossing Runway 10 and 15 Right.”

[higgmeister]

It was not the Airplane's fault at all.   The ARFF vehicle was told to stop before crossing the runway 15R but he drove right in front of the Airplane.   The pilot didn't even know what had happened.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Was the pilot named “Sum Ting Wong”?

[ro_dreaming]

The pilot wasn’t in the wrong, the driver of the ARFF was wrong. The ARFF driver was told to “hold short” - meaning STOP - and they didn’t.