Air Canada Express flight AC8886 was ordered to stop by air traffic control (ATC) just seconds after receiving takeoff clearance at Lambert St. Louis International Airport (STL). Southwest Airlines flight WN3082 was approaching the same runway to land.
Takeoff clearance cancelled seconds before disaster
Air Canada‘s flight AC8886, operated by Jazz Aviation and bound for Toronto, was cleared to depart Runway 12R on Tuesday morning when ATC frantically cancelled takeoff clearance due to a Southwest aircraft landing on the same runway.
ATC audio from VASAviation showed when the tower first cleared Southwest Airlines’ flight WN3082 to land on Runway 12R, which the flight crew acknowledged. The controller then cleared Air Canada’s flight, a Bombardier CRJ900 operating under the callsign Jazz 886, for takeoff from the same runway.
However, the controller almost immediately began to cancel the takeoff clearance, repeatedly saying:
“Jazz 8, stop, stop, stop, Jazz, stop. Jazz stop, Jazz stop, stop Jazz!”
The Air Canada flight’s pilots quickly acknowledged the instruction and confirmed “holding position” before the Southwest crew asked the tower to confirm that they were still clear to land. The controller reconfirmed the clearance, and the Boeing 737-800 landed on the runway safely seconds later with no injuries reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to classify the close call.
A previous, fatal accident
This Runway 12R incident comes just seven months after a Jazz-operated Air Canada Express flight was involved in a fatal runway crash at LaGuardia Airport in New York.
On March 22, flight AC8646 operated by a CRJ-900 was arriving from Montréal with 76 passengers on board. The aircraft struck a Port Authority fire truck on Runway 4 moments after landing. Unfortunately, the collision killed both pilots.
The fire truck had been cleared to cross the runway about 12 seconds before the aircraft landed. Investigators said that the driver heard the controller’s instruction to stop, but did not know it was directed at the truck because the tower only identified the vehicle in its second call.
What are your thoughts on the close call with Air Canada and Southwest Airlines? Let us know in the comments.
