AUSTIN, Texas — A new report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is providing more details about a near-collision at Austin's airport back in February, when a cargo plane and a passenger plane nearly crashed into each other on the runway.
The report also outlines new technology that could make the airport safer, as there have been at least five close calls at the airport in the last year.
"There was some apprehension on the part of the FedEx plane about potential proximity to the Southwest airplane, which they knew had been. Cleared to take off on the same runway," said Mike Slack, an aviation attorney based in Austin.
Slack is referring to the incident when a FedEx jet almost landed on top of a full Southwest Airlines flight.
The NTSB report includes testimony from pilots and air traffic controllers who said they thought the Southwest plane would take off faster to clear the runway for the incoming FedEx plane. But they said conditions were foggy so it was hard to see what was occurring on the ground.
"Also raises the question of why Austin does not have ground radar and the ground radar system, according to some of the interviews that I read, should have been installed in Austin at least five years ago," Slack said.
The tower at Austin's airport only has 35 fully certified air traffic controllers but is supposed to employ at least 42. So while the FAA faces more calls to staff the tower, the new NTSB documents mention and recommend technology that the airport doesn't have that could help reduce close calls.
What's known as "Airport Surface Detection Equipment," or ASDE-X, can help air traffic controllers "see" what's on the runway in rough conditions.
"Austin will be at the top of the list to get the new surface awareness initiative. That is not radar, but it is a way to detect everything that is moving all the runways," U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) said.
Doggett said the ASDE-X technology is being replaced with the new surface awareness initiative and Austin should get it by next summer. But the issue of staffing at the control tower remains.
"The FAA requires mandatory overtime to control the workforce, including regular 6-day workweek and 10-hour days. This leads to fatigue," Rich Santa, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), said in a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing this month.
"Air traffic control number right now is 10,721. Using their decade old number, we should be at 13,097," Santa said.
All agree that major changes need to be made, especially after being spelled out by the NTSB.