Second DIA close-call in a month under investigation

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, February 5, 2007

A snowplow remained on an active runway at Denver International Airport on Friday, prompting the National Transportation Safety Board to open its second runway incursion investigation at DIA in a month.

The plane got within 200 feet of the snowplow before it came to a complete stop.

According to the NTSB, the latest incident happened Friday at 5:38 p.m., when a United Airlines Boeing 737 landed after a flight from Billings, Mont., on Runway 26. That is the east-west runway along the huge airfield’s northeast edge.

When a pilot noticed a snowplow ahead on the runway, he applied maximum, braking power to the jet, including engine thrust reversers, as it completed its landing rollout. The crew brought the plane to a stop on the runway, missing the snowplow by 200 feet on the 12,000-foot runway.

The NTSB said there were no injuries among the 101 people on board the jet.

The federal safety agency said the plow had been escorted onto the runway by an airport operations vehicle, which is standard procedure, and that the escort was in radio communication with the air traffic control tower.

But the plow operator had become separated from the escort vehicle, which had departed from the runway by the time the United jet was landing. The NTSB said it is unclear whether the plow operator was in radio contact with the tower or with the escort.

Visibility at the time was reported to be 10 miles.

The NTSB investigation will include tapes of tower audio communications, the aircraft flight data recorder and radar. Interviews will be conducted with the pilots, ground vehicle drivers and air traffic controllers.

On Jan. 5, a Frontier jet had to abort a landing at the last second to avoid a small cargo craft that had entered the runway on which the jet was about to land. The two craft came within 50 feet of one another, NTSB said. That incident is still under investigation.