Three Planes Cleared For Same LAX Runway Avoid Crash

The Associated Press ^ | February 22, 2006 | AP

[Westlander]

LOS ANGELES -- Federal investigators are trying to figure out why an air traffic controller directed three planes onto the same runway at Los Angeles International Airport last week.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said, "It was pretty close."

[VRWCmember]

Sounds straight out of Die Hard 2.

Or Airplane 1.

[Alouette]

why an air traffic controller directed three planes onto the same runway

So is LAX run by Dubai or UAE?

[MindBender26]

Ever fly into the old Hong Kong, Kai Tak?

You flew first ILS led DIRECTLY from outer marker into cliff side, but you changed frequencies at middle marker, made a 70 degree right and flew second ILS to touchdown.

Loads of fun.

[evets]

Whoo!

[doorgunner69]

*What's DTW's report card?*

?????

[Dan(9698)]

And they're adding a fifth.

The real problem is when they drink the fifth.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

February 1, 1991. Thirty-four passengers died at the Los Angeles International Airport when an incoming US Air Boeing 737 collided with a smaller SkyWest Metroliner commuter plane. The US Air jet landed on the smaller craft, flattening it and dragging it in flames into the side of an abandoned fire station. The crash claimed all 12 people on the smaller plane and 22 of the 89 aboard the larger US Air jet.

A colleague of mine was on the smaller plane.

[SENTINEL]

In other related news, Bush administration officials announced today that the US Government will sell the "management rights" of the FAA to a consortium of arab sheiks....

[Old Professer]

I think she was cross-trained afterward into TRACON.

[Frank_Discussion]

Sounds like an EX-LAX controller, methinks...

[Zauber]

Up until the early 90's, air traffic controllers were hired through a competitive screening process. Not so anymore. The primary goal of the FAA's hiring today is to boost the percentage in the work force of what the government refers to as "protected classes" (i.e. anything but white males).

It has also become virtually impossible to wash trainees out of the program. They file grievance after grievance and are continually recycled through training.

Even those that are washed out are never fired. They are transferred to lower level facilities where the cycle begins anew. I could cite numerous examples of people who are in "training" for 7 or 8 years without ever checking out in any facility.

The amount of money wasted on useless nonproductive personnel in the FAA is staggering.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

LOL!!

[Young Werther]

The old punchline goes, (with southern drawl added),

"Y'all be careful now! Y'hear?"

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

One time I was landing on a runway with a Cessna 150. The ATC informed me to expedite my landing roll, "You have a DC-9 landing behind you!"

Jeez!

[fuquadukie]

Bah, the turboprop woulda made it if he just gunned it. you gotta take any opening in the traffic you can get...

THAT'S why I have V6 Camry.. no puny 4-cylinder for me.. gotta have it sometimes when you're getting on the freeway and the "mad mom in a minivan" refuses to move...

[westmichman]

Would probably be better run if it was.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Sorry you had to lose a colleague that way. Was that another case of controller screw-up?

[SJSAMPLE]

That case was PURE controller screw up.

[RightWhale]

Not a surprise. Not at all. A flight I was on to LAX came down and touched the runway, then full throttle back up. Another plane came up at the same time from a crossing runway. You could see the faces of the passengers in the other plane, it was that close.