Trainees Alone In Tower During Allentown Near Miss

So by now you may have heard about that Mesa CRJ-700 that almost hit a Cessna 172 on the runway in Allentown, PA recently. Well now AVweb is reporting that the only two controllers in the tower at Lehigh International Airport during the runway incursion were only trainees. One of the trainee controllers reportedly had instructed the Cessna, who had just landed, to exit the runway at a specific taxiway. The pilot advised the tower that he missed the exit and was going down to the next taxiway instead. The controller must have misinterpreted this as the pilot reporting that he had exited so he cleared the Mesa CRJ to take off from that same runway. What happened next was a guaranteed undie-messer as the CRJ had to "swerve" to miss the Cessna as it barreled down the runway at 120 knots coming within 10 feet of smashing into each other. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is not disputing the facts of this incident but is hoping it builds on the case of an internal controller shortage, an issue sure to come up this Thursday during a House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on runway safety this. The Mesa flight (operating as United Express) was canceled after the incursion to deodorize the doodoo smell in the cabin.

[AVweb]

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