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Report on near-collisions at O'Hare Airport released

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posted on Sep, 25 2012 @ 01:14 PM
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Not sure about you guys, but living here in Chicago and using O'Hare airport constantly, this story scares me and pisses me off all at the same time. A preliminary report was released on Monday by Federal Transportation investigators about two near mid-air collisions at one of the busiest airports in the world, O'Hare Airport. Which is a airport I'm sure most have used or had a connecting flight at.

The number of airline flights has decreased in the past four years, but, the New York Times is reporting the number of potentially catastrophic incidents on the ground has remained steady.

Now folks, this is just at 1 airport, can you even imagine the amount of near collisions that probably happen around the country/world???


The report released by the National Transportation Safety Board doesn't draw conclusions or assess blame for the incidents, which involved landing and departing planes coming within several hundred feet of each other. But it highlights concerns about the configuration of a control tower and two intersecting runways.



Several controllers interviewed after a near miss on August 8, 2011, mentioned an obstruction in the middle of the air-traffic control room that forced controllers to yell vital information across the room. Others complained about potential confusion caused by the two intersecting runways.



The other near miss, which occurred on May 16, 2011, involved a SkyWest Airlines plane en route from Michigan approaching one runway and an ExpressJet Airlines taking off on the intersecting runway for Buffalo, N.Y. According to the report, the ExpressJet captain and others interviewed blamed at least one air-traffic controller for either forgetting or overlooking that the SkyWest plane had been given the OK to land.



The ExpressJet captain said his plane began roaring down a runway when he heard a distressed air traffic controller say, "Uhh!" Seconds later, the captain saw the landing SkyWest plane heading straight for his and frantically told his co-pilot to "stay low."



After the danger passed and he regained his composure, the captain radioed the tower after "nearly getting killed" and screamed at the air-traffic controller, "What the (expletive) was that?" according to the NTSB report.


I understand that being an air traffic controller has to be one of the most demanding, stressful jobs out there, especially with so many lives in your hands, not to mention the blind trust of the pilots who listen to your every word, but they need to fix these issues pronto. I am now wondering about the amount of issues that happen at airports around the country that are just swept under the rug??

Anyways, I'm interested to see what comes out in the final report (especially knowing that I live in Chicago)..

www.chicagotribune.com...



posted on Sep, 25 2012 @ 01:48 PM
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With all the traffic (isn't chicago the busiest airport in the world?) it is a statistical guarantee that there will be mistakes made...

the only way to prevent these mistakes are to :
a) expand the airport by adding more runways and taxiways
b) reduce the amount of aircraft accepted into the airport's airspace
c) reduce the amount of aircraft accepted to land at this airport

Short of that, there will someday be a serious accident.



posted on Sep, 25 2012 @ 02:13 PM
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Originally posted by Magnum007
With all the traffic (isn't chicago the busiest airport in the world?) it is a statistical guarantee that there will be mistakes made...

the only way to prevent these mistakes are to :
a) expand the airport by adding more runways and taxiways
b) reduce the amount of aircraft accepted into the airport's airspace
c) reduce the amount of aircraft accepted to land at this airport

Short of that, there will someday be a serious accident.


And that's what scares me... one day there definitely will be...

They are constantly talking expansion at O'Hare but I just dont see how much bigger they can make this airport...



posted on Sep, 25 2012 @ 02:24 PM
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Originally posted by jhn7537

Originally posted by Magnum007
With all the traffic (isn't chicago the busiest airport in the world?) it is a statistical guarantee that there will be mistakes made...

the only way to prevent these mistakes are to :
a) expand the airport by adding more runways and taxiways
b) reduce the amount of aircraft accepted into the airport's airspace
c) reduce the amount of aircraft accepted to land at this airport

Short of that, there will someday be a serious accident.


And that's what scares me... one day there definitely will be...

They are constantly talking expansion at O'Hare but I just dont see how much bigger they can make this airport...


then in that case they need to scale down operations to prevent accidents...




 
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