History of Flight
On Wednesday, January 27, 2016, at about 0804 eastern standard time, a runway incursion occurred at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) in Detroit, Michigan. The incursion involved an airport operations vehicle (O373) and Endeavor Air (Flagship) flight 3860 (FLG3860), a CRJ9. FLG3860 was operating as a regularly scheduled passenger flight to Norfolk International Airport (ORF) in Norfolk, Virginia, under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121. O373 was conducting a routine runway inspection. There was no damage to the aircraft or vehicle, and no injuries were reported. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed.
Approximately five minutes before the incident, the driver of O373 completed a runway inspection on runway 22R and informed the local northwest (LNW) controller that he was proceeding to the departure end of runway 22L and would hold short until permission was granted to drive on runway 22L. The LNW controller reiterated instructions to hold short of runway 22L at taxiway R. The driver acknowledged and complied.
At 0801:37, the LNW controller instructed O373 to turn right and drive on runway 22L. The driver acknowledged. The driver proceeded southbound, turned 180 degrees on the runway 4R numbers, and then proceeded northbound.
About 0802, the local control positions (LNW and local northeast, LNE) were combined. The LNE controller received a position relief briefing from the LNW controller and assumed all duties from the LNE workstation. The briefing occurred from 0802:25 to 0802:40. During the briefing at 0802:31, the LNW controller informed the LNE controller that O373 was driving on runway 22L and turning northbound. At the same time, the pilot of FLG3860 transmitted readiness for departure on runway 22L.
At 0802:44, the combined local controller instructed FLG3860 to line up and wait on runway 22L. At 0803:46, the local controller cleared FLG3860 for takeoff on runway 22L. The pilot acknowledged. About 20 seconds later, the airport surface detection system (ASDE-X) alerted that the runway was occupied by both FLG3860 and O373.
At 0804:10, the local controller instructed FLG3860 to abort takeoff and O373 to exit the runway to the right. Both complied. According to ASDE-X data, the closest proximity between the aircraft and vehicle was about 211 feet laterally. The local controller then stated that the error was his fault and directed FLG3860 to exit the runway and contact ground control when ready.
The driver of O373 exited the runway and returned to the base operations location. About 0805, the pilot of FLG3860 switched to ground control frequency and requested taxi instructions, indicating about 15 minutes before departure. The ground controller taxied FLG3860 to runway 22L. About 21 minutes later, the pilot requested to return to the gate.
Radar Data
Radar data for this report was obtained from the ASR-9 sensor located at DTW.
Meteorological Information
The weather at DTW at the time of the incident, as reported by the KDTW automatic surface observing system, included wind from 250 degrees at 9 knots, 10 miles visibility, light snow, scattered clouds at 2,500 feet, broken ceiling at 4,000 feet, overcast skies at 17,000 feet, temperature -2°C, dew point -4°C, and altimeter 30.20 inHg.