"Sorry, mate - I just didn't see ya"

[Dave W]

Runway incursion in Moorabbin Airport, in Victoria Australia.

ATSB report

[Grelly]

Good thing he was so close to take off speed!

[Jim Jones]

Bl** hell! New trousers I think.

[chevvron]

NOW do you believe in ATC/FIS.

[weirdfish]

[BlackheathBloke]

NOW do you believe in ATC/FIS.

ATC cleared someone to taxi in front of my when I was on very short final at Cherbourg a few years back, I had a dead alternator so had flown the appropriate circuit but the guy in the tower just didn't see me.

Luckily the person he cleared had noticed me and stopped pdq.

[Full Metal Jackass]

That is scary indeed....

Some time last year I was heading to an airfield whilst parachute drops were taking place so obviously, when they were falling, everyone stayed out of the way - I circled a few miles out. They all landed to the north of the runway, the clubhouse was to the south. Either way, I was cleared to continue my approach and was just starting my flare when I thought I saw something, at the same time I heard "abort" over the headphones so accelerated and went around - three of the jumpers were so engrossed with a video one of them had taken on a CamCorder they walked straight across the runway as I was landing......

[Awful Charlie]

NOW do you believe in ATC/FIS.

Always have Doesn't help if the instructor and stude are going to ignore you though!

Had the 'charming' experience of an aircraft entering and backtracking whilst I was on base last weekend - I continued onto final, but he was too slow to get going, so I went around. He'd not only forgotten to look out of the window, but all of his lights too (it was a rather gloomy day), and it was quite difficult to pick out his aircraft against the runway

[ROG]

Had a situation at Le TOUQUET a couple of years ago where no ATC and people landing in both directions., this plus dodgy weather made me decide to divert to Calais.

[The Kid from Red Bank]

NOW do you believe in ATC/FIS.

And of course, ATC or FIS never make mistakes or clear big aircraft to take off when another big aircraft is still trundling along the runway, as recently happened (allegedly) at a big boy's airport.....

Nobody is perfect, humans make mistakes, so we should all keep our eyes (and ears) open and stop thinking ATC/FIS/Radio is going to save us from an incident.

[vintage ATCO]

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can enter a runway whether in aeroplane/vehicle/foot and being 'cleared' by a nice man (or woman) in a tower they don't have a good look BOTH ways. Mistakes happen.

[anglianav8r]

Phew! Good reactions and a very tidy recovery from a nasty predicamant.

[rats404]

Very scary. Quick reactions, but climbing away right on the stall warner... yikes.

I would have pursued a pretty full and frank exchange of views with that muppet, possibly involving fisticuffs, irrespective of what clearance they had. It is always our responsibility to look before entering the runway.

[kingjame]

I see incidents like this and think about my days on a motorbike. A horn in that situation came in quite handy, maybe light aircraft should have a loud external horn to provide a friendly toot prior to landing when there are waiting aircraft or an angrier toot if the holding point is breached.

I noticed that the aircraft wandering into the runway was high wing, it is possible that the landing aircraft was hidden due to unfortunate angles between the pilot's head, wing and the landing aircraft. Scary none the less and a reminder of the Tenerife disaster.

[Frank Leopald]

I was taught to turn the a/c towards the approach as part of preparing to enter whether cleared by ATC or any lesser level of service.

I've lost count of the number of times I've decided to wait based on what I could see. Though only a couple at ATC fields.

FL