When the Southwest Boeing 737, carrying 128 passengers and crew, began taking off, a cargo plane was also landing on the same runway. The FedEx crew realized the danger in good time, stopped the vehicle and circled the vehicle to avoid a collision. Investigators said the plane came within about 100 feet of the plane.
No one was injured, but the incident was one of many close calls this year, highlighting chronic problems with the Federal Aviation Administration’s hiring and technology upgrades. New documents show how these issues were at play in Austin. Officials told investigators they had long-standing concerns about a shortage of air traffic controllers, a grueling overtime schedule and the lack of a warning system to warn of impending crashes.
The NTSB investigation is ongoing, and the file does not draw any conclusions about the cause of the incident, but it does highlight how the near miss is related to decisions made by one air traffic controller.
FAA officials said the agency does not comment on public investigations. The agency previously announced that Austin Airport would be the first of 95 facilities to install the new training simulator in January.
On the morning of February 4th, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was shrouded in fog. Air traffic controller Damien Campbell couldn’t see the Southwest plane from the tower, but he cleared it for takeoff. Campbell told NTSB investigators that because the company’s pilots tend to be agile, he expected the cargo jet to take plenty of time to land on the runway.
“I think they were rolling,” Campbell said. But when he noticed he couldn’t hear the 737’s engine, Campbell said he knew something was wrong.
On the approaching FedEx cargo jet, Captain Hugo F. Carvajal III later told NTSB investigators that he became irritated when he noticed a plane being cleared for takeoff in front of his own, and asked his co-pilot to take off. He said he asked for confirmation of the landing.
Next to him, co-pilot Robert J. Bradeen Jr. began looking out the window, spotted lights that did not match the runway lighting, and soon saw the silhouette of the plane.
“I said, ‘Turn around, turn around, turn around,'” Bradeen recalled.
Campbell told investigators that in retrospect, he could have prevented the Southwest flight from departing. “In hindsight, we definitely could have kept them if it was 20/20,” Campbell said.
Susan Green, the supervisor on duty at the time of the near-miss, told the NTSB that Campbell’s handling of the situation “didn’t quite meet my expectations.”
“I never would have resigned like that in this scenario,” Green said, according to a transcript of the interview.
Union representative Mark Fellner, who accompanied Campbell to the interview, could not be reached for comment. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association declined to comment on the NTSB’s public investigation.
Fellner said in an independent interview with law enforcement officials that he had been calling for more controllers to be assigned to the facility since 2017. Airports are becoming increasingly crowded, but “no one seems to care,” he said.
“The data is really scary and depressing,” Fellner said.
Campbell was working overtime at the time of the incident. Air traffic controllers unions say six-day work weeks are common as the FAA struggles to hire and train enough staff and traffic volume has increased. A panel of experts commissioned by the FAA reached similar conclusions about the problems posed by staffing shortages.
Green told investigators that fatigue and low morale were taking a toll on the facility. Martin said the October 2022 staffing increase will be enough to “stop the bleeding.”
In other near misses in Boston and New York, an alarm system called ASDE-X provided early warning of danger. The system hasn’t been installed in Austin, and Campbell said he knew it was needed five years ago.
“Without ASDE-X, our operations would pretty much come to a standstill in inclement weather,” Campbell said.