Romanucci & Blandin has always been a strong advocate for aviation safety, not only in Chicago but all over the country. Our recent involvement in the Southwest Airlines runway incursion at Midway Airport has led to substantial safety upgrades at the airport, with many more safety features to come. However, there continues to be a lot of work in this ever-changing industry of expansion and retraction. Only yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board began investigating a runway incursion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in which two airliners may have come within 100 feet of each other.

At about 2:30 p.m. on July 11, 2007, the crew of United Airlines flight 1544, an Airbus A-320, received taxi clearance from the terminal to runway 9L via taxiway T7.

Delta Airlines flight 1489, a Boeing 757, arriving from Atlanta, Georgia, was inbound for landing on runway 9L. As United was taxiing on taxiway D near runway 9L, the tower controller noticed the airplane was going too fast to hold short of the runway and told the ground controller to tell United to stop. United stopped on runway 9L, 30 feet from the centerline.

As Delta flight 1489 was touching down on runway 9L, the tower controller instructed it to “go around.” The airplane became airborne, and the tower controllers reported that Delta flew within 100 feet of UAL.

Fort Lauderdale International Airport is not equipped with either a ground safety system, such as an Airport Movement Area Safety System, or Airport Surveillance Detection Equipment. The United crew stated that they missed the turn onto taxiway B. The FAA has classified this incident as a pilot deviation.