S.A. people!

[GatorFC]

Almost had my first (and possibly last) "incident" today on takeoff. I just saw on the news that there were two small plane crashes today (one in Atlanta and the other in Detroit), and I could easily have been the third when a plane from the other flight school at our airport was on final to land niner as me and my instructor had just rotated after we were cleared for takeoff on 27. Fortunately they caught their mistake in time and turned north while we continued our climbout so even a near-miss was avoided, but I would think a student and especially an instructor would be hyper-aware of making sure they were landing the right runway in the right direction at their towered homefield. I mean I ratchet up my SA a notch in an airport environment not only to avoid danger but also to avoid embarassment of not being ahead of the plane in front of my fellow pilots or ATC. You could tell those guys felt a little sheepish as they apologized over the tower frequency for missing "it" (meaning the right runway I guess).

I know everyone makes mistakes, and I'm by no means immune myself, but this incident highlighted to me in a dramatic way the danger of a loss of Situational Awareness.

Safe flying out there, guys!

[Windchill]

Glad you're still with us. I imagine one would be pretty livid knowing the errors of another almost killed you.

Did tower not pick up on their mistake? Was the tower not in contact with the pilots of the other aircraft?

Imagine if the same thing would have happened under IMC conditions.

[Screaming_Emu]

we had a simlar thing happen here last year. A student pilot was told to taxi into position and hold but took off instead. There was another plane taking off on an interesecting runway and both the tower and the people in the planes say it was about 20 feet. Scary.

[GatorFC]

[ QUOTE ]
Did tower not pick up on their mistake? Was the tower not in contact with the pilots of the other aircraft?

[/ QUOTE ]
That's what gets me, Windchill, which is why I consider it a MAJOR loss of SA. Tower WAS in contact with the plane. There was a Lake Amphibian positioning and holding on 27 waiting for t/o clearance while my instructor and I were at the hold short line for 27 waiting for the Amphibian to go. Twr cleared the amphibian then told the piper (the SA loss plane) that they were cleared to land and if they had the amphib in sight. The piper acknowledged but reported the amphib not in sight. That's when I keyed the mike to report to twr that we were holding short and ready for t/o. Surprisingly, twr cleared us. Both me and my instructor glanced right to the approach end of 27 to make sure the piper wasn't anywhere near on final, saw that it was clear, and taxied to and took off from 27. After rotation and at about 300ft., we see the piper on final for niner which is about the same time they caught their mistake and turned north while we continued our climb. That was when they got on the radio and apologized for their mistake. I don't recall twr chewing them out or anything, but by that time I was more focused on my IFR training flight.

The way I see it, the piper had numerous opportunities to know which runway was in use if they were paying attention to the twr. freq. They should have heard the dialogue between the Lake and twr, between me and twr, and of course between themselves and twr to know 27 was the active runway. Like I said, I was somewhat surprised when twr cleared us for t/o, between the Lake going and the piper coming, but I guess like us they figured the piper was still a ways off since they were nowhere in sight on the approach end to 27 and since the piper reported the Lake Amphib not in sight. I can't believe they didn't see it heading straight for them after it took off!

I guess, like they say, its better to be lucky than smart cause those guys had two chances to hit another aircraft and, fortunately, struck out on both.