A dangerous Southwest Airlines incident from October is just coming to light. The NTSB has just released a preliminary report of what happened between a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 and a private Diamond DA40 on October 19, 2024 in Long Beach.
- At approximately 2:42 p.m. the crew of the Diamond DA40 established communication with Long Beach air traffic control and were cleared to land on runway 30. They were instructed to hold short of runway 26R due to intersecting traffic.
- The DA40’s crew requested to circle and land on runway 26R instead, but this request was denied by the controller, who reiterated the instruction to land on runway 30 and hold short of the intersecting runway. The DA40’s pilots acknowledged and complied.
- Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines flight WN1671 from Oakland contacted ATC 5 minutes later. The flight was cleared to land on runway 30 and provided a traffic advisory about an unrelated aircraft operating in the area.
- Two minutes after that, the DA40 landed on runway 30 and reported to ATC that they were holding short of runway 26R, as instructed.
- The Southwest jet landed on the same runway. As the 737-700 completed its landing rollout at a speed of 17 knots, the flight crew reported seeing the DA40 on the runway ahead. The two aircraft came within 857 feet of each other.
Fortunately, both aircraft proceeded to their respective parking areas without further complications.
NEW: NTSB says a landing Southwest flight came within 857' of hitting a private Diamond DA40 waiting on the runway in Long Beach, CA. The incident happened on Oct. 19 but is just coming to light now. ATC told DA40 to "land and hold short" but didn't give further direction. pic.twitter.com/aIJMjGQpjl
— Pete Muntean (@petemuntean) December 11, 2024
The FAA’s air traffic control is very broken and a silent safety risk. Technology modernization has been poorly managed and in crisis for decades.
Southwest in particular has had challenges, with last year’s near-miss in Austin, another jet coming within 150 feet of the Tampa Bay water, a flight departing from a closed runway with a vehicle in its path one nearly colliding with a JetBlue plane at DC’s National airport and one buzzing the LaGuardia tower.
Just two months ago, air traffic control put two Southwest planes on the same runway and in June another of the airline’s 737s descended to just over 500 feet while still 9 miles out from the Oklahoma City airport.
Over the summer the FAA launched a safety audit of Southwest Airlines. The FAA’s Office of Inspector General has previously found that the agency “has not effectively overseen Southwest Airlines’ systems for managing safety risks.” Since the start of the pandemic, the FAA ‘closed’ 9 of 11 recommendations to address deficiencies in monitoring Southwest Airlines safety. However five years later there are still outstanding items that the FAA has agreed are problems but have not been fixed.
The controllers were completely in the wrong and would have been faulted if this had been a mishap. There is no requirement for the PIC to accept a “LAHSO” (Land And Hold Short) clearance. He declined and was still directed to land on 26R.
Bad ATC call. Lucky for both aircraft
From the Airman’s Information Manual 4-3-11:
“If you determine that you cannot safely accept a LAHSO clearance, you
have full authority to decline and request to land on the full length, or on
another runway.”
Pretty definitive
It seems that the ATC was at fault in this case, not Southwest Airlines. The Southwest flight fortunately touched down at a place where it could reduce its speed enough so that it was down to taxi speed by the time the other airplane was noticed on the same runway.
Hopefully the new head of the FAA can address the staffing and technology issues. As someone who spent 40 years in IT it amazes me how antiquated our flight control technology is (still had vacuum tubes at least a few years ago if not now) and the cost/time it takes to deploy new technology. Other countries who aren’t thought of as technology leaders somehow seem to do it but we can’t.
Hopefully this is high on Elon’s list of things to fix given the technology focus of his companies.
850 feet is nearly a thousand. That’s plenty of room. Besides, the brakes on today’s commercial aircraft are DOGGONE powerful, they can stop the plane fast enough to hurt people.
I wouldn’t have a cow, if I were you.
@Captain Shawn
That’s not an accurate interpretation of the regulations. You are correct that you are not required to accept a LAHSO instruction. You can respond “unable” and allow ATC to give you new instructions for a full-length landing. You may ask for a different, specific runway, but they are under no obligation to give it to you.
This pilot’s runway request was denied, so they accepted the LAHSO clearance. Likely because they knew that they would have had to leave and re-enter the landing traffic sequence. Once they accepted it, they are responsible for executing it properly (which it sounds like they did).
The DA40 pilot was cleared to land R30 and hold short 26R? The pilot stopped on the runway vs exiting R30 after landing. Nothing in his clearance indicated he was to stay stopped on R30… really dumb and ATC should have designated an exit for him to use.
I’m parked with @Mark Rubin, it’s hard to imagine ATC giving an LAHSO clearance to remain on an active runway. In looking at the LGB Airfield Diagram (great image at https://www.longbeach.gov/lgb/resources/airfield-diagram/), one would think that ATC would have had them exit Runway Turnoff K, and hold short of Taxiway D.
So the FAA needs more funding. What’s new?
It’s probably not going to get any.
How about a safety audit of US ATC instead?