Fri, Feb 23, 2007
Equipment Covered In Snow At Time Of Incident
A vital piece of equipment used to properly orient landing
aircraft was inoperable when a Shuttle America regional jet slid
off a snow-slicked runway at Cleveland Hopkins International
Airport last weekend.
The Cleveland Plains Dealer reports Airport Commissioner Fred
Szabo acknowledged the glideslope emitter wasn't working for runway
28 when the Embraer 170 landed Sunday afternoon. As Aero-News reported, the
plane skidded off the departure end of the runway, impacted
navigational equipment and came to a rest near an airport surface
road.
"The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board
and the Federal Aviation Administration will determine what
happened, and if the nonfunctioning navigational aid contributed to
the problem," Szabo said. The glideslope emitter was covered with
snow, he added.
Tower officials were unable to say where the accident plane
touched down on the runway, Szabo added. A heavy snowfall and winds
around 20 mph combined to produce near white-out conditions at the
time of the accident.
"That information is crucial to determining what happened,"
Szabo said.
20-year airline pilot Jonathan Regas told the Plains-Dealer the
pronounced slope of runway 28 may have also contributed to the
accident. The runway elevation drops 29 feet from the approach to
the departure ends.
"It's a question that should be raised," Regas said.
Brad Burdette, president of the local chapter of the National
Air Traffic Controllers Association, told the paper planes had
landed on the runway all day with no problems.
The incident Sunday recalled an earlier accident at Hopkins. In
January 2003, a Continental Express Embraer 145 overran a different
runway at CLE, during similar conditions.
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