Austin Airport Accident Prevention Preliminary Report Released

Austin, Texas. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report on the averted accident at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in early February.

On March 2, the NTSB released a preliminary report on the incident. The report details what happened on runway 18L between a Federal Express (FedEx) plane and a Southwest Airlines flight on February 4, 2023.

The Austin Airport Control Tower air traffic controller stated that at the time of the incident, at 6:40 a.m., there was “extremely low traffic and complexity” in the AUS. The weather at the time of the incident, according to the report, was “calm winds, 1/4 mile visibility in freezing fog, vertical visibility 200 feet above ground level, and a temperature of minus one degree Celsius.”

This means that the aircraft had extremely poor visibility to see oncoming traffic in their surrounding areas.

Audio logs indicated that at 6:34 a.m., the pilots of the FedEx aircraft began contacting the control tower and stated that the aircraft was approaching runway 18L for landing. The controller then advised the pilots the runway visual range (RVR) and cleared FedEx to land.

Four minutes later, at 6:38 a.m., the first officer (FO) of a Southwest Airlines flight checked into the control tower and stated that “they were holding close to runway 18L and ready to take off,” according to the report. The controller reported the RVR values ​​to the co-pilot and indicated that the FedEx aircraft was on final approach 3 miles to the same runway.

After the co-pilot confirmed the instructions with the correct repetition to the tower, they were granted permission to take off. The Southwest Airlines flight taxied onto runway 18L, lined up with the runway centerline and “came to a complete stop, after which control of the aircraft was transferred from the captain to the co-pilot,” the report said.

The co-pilot stated in the report that he increased power, checked the engines, and released the brakes to begin the takeoff run. A minute later, at 6:39 a.m., the FedEx pilots contacted the control tower again to confirm clearance to land on runway 18L because “he was concerned about southwest traffic.”

The controller confirmed that FedEx would land and that the Southwest Airlines flight would take off from runway 18L ahead of the FedEx aircraft.

Less than a minute later, the FedEx aircraft was about 0.7 miles from runway 18L for its final approach. This prompted the controller to ask the Southwest Airlines flight to “confirm they were up to date”, and the captain replied that they were on their way at that point.

The report stated that the captain of the FedEx aircraft “noted that at an altitude of about 150 feet, the co-pilot called for a go-around after visually seeing [the Southwest Airlines flight] approximately 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet from the end of the runway.”

This prompted one of the crew members on the FedEx plane to broadcast “Southwest Drop” and four seconds later stated “FedEx is on its way”, indicating that FedEx had canceled the landing and instead made a climb to retry the landing. to a safer approach.

According to the report, the captain of Southwest Airlines noted that “somewhere between 80 KIAS and V1, he and the co-pilot heard FedEx calling for a go-around.”

Surveillance and broadcast data showed that once the FedEx flight was at the end of runway 18L and began climbing to 1,900 feet, the controller ordered the FedEx to “turn left, heading 080, and maintain 3,000 feet.” At the same time, the Southwest Airlines flight was about 1,000 feet below and began a turn to the right of the runway’s heading.

The report does not specify the maximum distance between aircraft during a “flight”. Further investigation is ongoing as the traffic alert and collision avoidance system computers from both aircraft have been removed for review.

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