http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1092646--pilot-manoeuvre-averted-disaster-at-pearson?bn=1
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Staff Reporter
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada and American Airlines are investigating a near-collision on a Pearson International Airport runway that forced an Air Canada pilot into manoeuvres to avoid disaster.
Air traffic controllers ordered an American Eagle commuter plane to “stop, stop, stop” as it meandered onto a runway where the Air Canada Airbus was taking off on Nov. 18.
“I can confirm we are working with the Transportation Safety Board in Canada and an internal investigation,” American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagin told the Star on Friday.
She declined to elaborate.
The 50-seat American Eagle Embraer EMB-145 commuter plane had just landed on a flight from Chicago at 11:27 p.m. on runway 24L, the Transport Canada Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report said.
Air traffic controllers told the pilots to move off the runway at the Delta 4 exit and stay off the runway, the report said.
“The flight crew read back the instruction correctly,” report author John Donaldson said.
A 120-seat Air Canada Airbus 319 headed for Halifax was moving down runway 24R. An air traffic controller saw the American Eagle “passing the hold line and stop bars” and ordered, “Stop. Stop. Stop.”
However the commuter plane kept going and stopped partially on the runway, the report said. The flight crew contacted the tower with the words, “Say again.”
The Air Canada pilot “rotated around taxiway Delta 2 and overflew” the commuter plane in its way, the report said.
American Airlines owns the regional American Eagle carrier.
Transport Canada, Air Canada and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority were not immediately available for comment.
U.S. safety experts familiar with the incident told the Wall Street Journal that the incidents appears to be one of the most serious near-collisions reported recently in North America.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last month noted that the United States has not experienced a fatal commercial airline crash since 2009.
Air Canada’s last crash was in 1997, in Fredericton, N.B., and last crash involving death was in 1983. American Eagle had two fatal crashes in 1994, one in 1992 and one in 1988.
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Staff Reporter
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada and American Airlines are investigating a near-collision on a Pearson International Airport runway that forced an Air Canada pilot into manoeuvres to avoid disaster.
Air traffic controllers ordered an American Eagle commuter plane to “stop, stop, stop” as it meandered onto a runway where the Air Canada Airbus was taking off on Nov. 18.
“I can confirm we are working with the Transportation Safety Board in Canada and an internal investigation,” American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagin told the Star on Friday.
She declined to elaborate.
The 50-seat American Eagle Embraer EMB-145 commuter plane had just landed on a flight from Chicago at 11:27 p.m. on runway 24L, the Transport Canada Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report said.
Air traffic controllers told the pilots to move off the runway at the Delta 4 exit and stay off the runway, the report said.
“The flight crew read back the instruction correctly,” report author John Donaldson said.
A 120-seat Air Canada Airbus 319 headed for Halifax was moving down runway 24R. An air traffic controller saw the American Eagle “passing the hold line and stop bars” and ordered, “Stop. Stop. Stop.”
However the commuter plane kept going and stopped partially on the runway, the report said. The flight crew contacted the tower with the words, “Say again.”
The Air Canada pilot “rotated around taxiway Delta 2 and overflew” the commuter plane in its way, the report said.
American Airlines owns the regional American Eagle carrier.
Transport Canada, Air Canada and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority were not immediately available for comment.
U.S. safety experts familiar with the incident told the Wall Street Journal that the incidents appears to be one of the most serious near-collisions reported recently in North America.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last month noted that the United States has not experienced a fatal commercial airline crash since 2009.
Air Canada’s last crash was in 1997, in Fredericton, N.B., and last crash involving death was in 1983. American Eagle had two fatal crashes in 1994, one in 1992 and one in 1988.
