"Two LAX runway incidents last week called a fluke"

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Two LAX runway incidents last week called a fluke 
The Associated Press


A record seven-month runway safety streak at Los Angeles International
Airport ended last week when planes crossed the path of aircraft landing
or taking off on two occasions in four days, officials said. No
accidents resulted. 

The pilot of a small plane got confused and blundered across two
runways, including one on which a jet was landing, at 8:04 p.m. on July
21. Four days later, there was another close call involving commercial
jetliners. 

On July 21, the pilot of a six-seat Cessna 210 accurately read back a
controller's instructions but then crossed both southern runways toward
the airfield's west end without permission, said Donn Walker, spokesman
for the Federal Aviation Administration. 

An American Airlines MD-80 had just landed from the east on the
southernmost runway. 

At 9:30 p.m. on July 25, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 landed on the
airport's northernmost runway and exited as instructed on a taxiway
toward the airfield's west end, but it stopped too close to the inner
runway on which a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 had been cleared for
takeoff, Walker said. 

The Southwest pilot aborted his takeoff when he saw the other jet had
encroached onto the runway, Walker said. 

The FAA defines a runway incursion as occurring when a plane or vehicle
crosses a runway when an aircraft is landing or taking off. 

The FAA blamed last week's incursions on pilot error, leaving intact a
26-month streak during which air traffic controllers handled about 1.5
million planes without making a mistake that led to aircraft getting too
close to each other. 

"Given the improvements we've seen here, you have to believe this was
just a fluke that we had two in one week," Walker said.


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