[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM01NSZyA7I[/YOUTUBE]
This is the kind of stuff that scares me as a private pilot. It can happen at any airport, but is more likely at bigger airports with multiple runways and multiple towers handling arrivals and departures.
United 57 from Newark was on final approach for Runway 09L (9 LEFT) at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and had been cleared for this approach by Paris Center (or whatever they call it in Europe). CDG was doing departures on 09R and arrivals on 09L that day. The two runways are parallel and are located in close proximity to one another. United 57 was handed off to CDG Tower on final and the Tower controller cleared him to land 09R (the runway handling departures). This was likely a slip of the tongue, as 09R was not clear at the time. A flight had just landed and was yet to clear the active 09R runway markers. And the Tower had instructed a second aircraft (Easyjet 320) to line up and wait on 09R. The United 57 pilots accepted this change and made a turn to line up with 09R as instructed, and continued to fly the approach.
The Easyjet pilot crossed the 09R hold short line and entered 09R as instructed. As part of routine procedure, the pilots checked the extended centerline on the runway to make sure the runway and approach was clear. The Easyjet pilot saw United 57 on final approach less than a mile from the threshold and issued a clear, unambiguous instruction on the radio for United 57 to cancel the approach and go around. United 57 did a go around (they had also seen the Easyjet enter 09R) , and crossed the 09R threshold (the end of the paved runway) just 80 feet above ground level.
Had this been a foggy day, or if the pilots on the ground had not been paying close attention, this could have turned out quite differently. There are electronic runway incursion systems to act as safeguards (and in this case they sounded the alarm too late), but it is always the responsibility of the humans, the controllers and the pilots to make sure that everything is as should be. A simple mistake from the controller could have resulted in a tragedy but it didn't because the humans were paying attention.
This is the kind of stuff that scares me as a private pilot. It can happen at any airport, but is more likely at bigger airports with multiple runways and multiple towers handling arrivals and departures.
United 57 from Newark was on final approach for Runway 09L (9 LEFT) at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and had been cleared for this approach by Paris Center (or whatever they call it in Europe). CDG was doing departures on 09R and arrivals on 09L that day. The two runways are parallel and are located in close proximity to one another. United 57 was handed off to CDG Tower on final and the Tower controller cleared him to land 09R (the runway handling departures). This was likely a slip of the tongue, as 09R was not clear at the time. A flight had just landed and was yet to clear the active 09R runway markers. And the Tower had instructed a second aircraft (Easyjet 320) to line up and wait on 09R. The United 57 pilots accepted this change and made a turn to line up with 09R as instructed, and continued to fly the approach.
The Easyjet pilot crossed the 09R hold short line and entered 09R as instructed. As part of routine procedure, the pilots checked the extended centerline on the runway to make sure the runway and approach was clear. The Easyjet pilot saw United 57 on final approach less than a mile from the threshold and issued a clear, unambiguous instruction on the radio for United 57 to cancel the approach and go around. United 57 did a go around (they had also seen the Easyjet enter 09R) , and crossed the 09R threshold (the end of the paved runway) just 80 feet above ground level.
Had this been a foggy day, or if the pilots on the ground had not been paying close attention, this could have turned out quite differently. There are electronic runway incursion systems to act as safeguards (and in this case they sounded the alarm too late), but it is always the responsibility of the humans, the controllers and the pilots to make sure that everything is as should be. A simple mistake from the controller could have resulted in a tragedy but it didn't because the humans were paying attention.