4 municipal staff in Chicago have been disciplined or ticketed for 3 incidents during the last yr by which they unintentionally breached energetic runways at O’Hare Airport with their floor automobiles, newly obtained data present.
No accidents or crashes occurred. However in one of many mishaps, a metropolis employee’s mistake in driving onto a runway pressured an airplane that was about to land to abort landing, based on the data from the Chicago Division of Aviation, the arm of Metropolis Corridor that runs O’Hare and Halfway airports.
That incident, which occurred April 21, 2024, concerned a metropolis automobile coming into Runway 10C/28C from a taxiway “with out ATC permission,” metropolis data say, referring to O’Hare’s air site visitors controllers who oversee motion on and close to the airfield.
The town automobile “proceeded west on Runway 10C/28C as much as Taxiway F earlier than turning round and heading east to Taxiway HH and thereafter exited the runway,” data present.
What’s known as the Airport Motion Space Security System “alarmed,” signaling to controllers there was an “unauthorized automobile on the runway,” which is one in every of a number of east-west strips on the southern aspect of O’Hare.
Controllers then ordered a flight by Envoy Air, an American Airways affiliate, that was lower than a mile out and making ready to land to “go round,” that means abruptly cancel the touchdown and circle again, based on data. Controllers “tried to contact” the driving force of the town truck to no avail, data present.
The jet, arriving from Houston, gave the impression to be lower than a minute from touching down, and certain was carrying fewer than 80 passengers primarily based on its measurement.
When confronted in regards to the misstep, the town driver initially wouldn’t give a proper assertion, as an alternative indicating “he’ll (achieve this) tomorrow with union rep,” data present.
Areas of O’Hare incursions
He acquired what’s basically a site visitors quotation in addition to a five-day unpaid suspension for, amongst different issues, “conduct involving job efficiency or substandard work efficiency.”
An aviation division supervisor instructed an inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration — the company regulating U.S. airports, airways and airspace — that “our investigation didn’t discover that the airport’s floor automobile procedures have to be revised to forestall future automobile deviations,” data present.
However, the aviation supervisor additionally mentioned the incident would “be included in ongoing research concerning floor incidents and runway incursions which can be being developed” by the town company.
The incident got here months earlier than a near-collision at Midway on Feb. 25 involving an plane lumbering onto a runway the place a Southwest Airways jet was about to land.
And it was amongst roughly two dozen complete incursions at O’Hare in 2024, with lots of them showing to be the fault of pilots, based on an FAA database.
Two incursions have been blamed on metropolis staff in every of the next years: 2023, 2022 and 2021. In 2020, there have been 5 runway mishaps involving metropolis staff, based on a metropolis aviation division spokesman who added, “Security is the highest precedence on the airport,” with every incident taken significantly.
Even so, with hundreds of individuals “licensed to drive on O’Hare’s airfield, it’s a small subset of issues that you just’re speaking about right here.”
The FAA database experiences two runway incursions at O’Hare thus far in 2025, however metropolis staff didn’t look like concerned.
Different paperwork obtained by the Chicago Solar-Occasions reveal one other metropolis worker was hit with a two-day unpaid suspension following an incursion on July 2, 2024, on an angled strip referred to as Runway 4R/22L spanning greater than 8,000 ft within the southeast nook of O’Hare.
The runway had been closed for a routine inspection, however after it reopened, neither the worker nor a colleague being skilled by him in a metropolis automobile checked in to see if that stretch was accessible.
Data present their automobile proceeded northeast “on Runway 4R/22L as much as the midpoint of the runway” earlier than “turning round and heading again [southwest] certain to Taxiway Y3.”
“On the time of the incident Runway 4R/22L was open however not in use by ATC. No air site visitors was affected due to this incident.”
Drivers are required to contact controllers “to substantiate the standing of a runway or get approval . . . every time runway entry is required,” data present.
The trainee was ticketed however not disciplined.
One other incident, on Jan. 23, 2024, concerned a metropolis employee driving into an space that was restricted across the time a flight was cleared to land close by. He was given a reprimand.
The town staff concerned within the three 2024 incursions are members of both the Teamsters or the Laborers unions, neither of which instantly responded to questions. Their labor contracts with Metropolis Corridor name for “progressive self-discipline” in such cases.
None of them had prior runway violations, the aviation spokesman mentioned.
A fourth incident in 2024 concerned a metropolis automobile rolling right into a runway security zone whereas serving to a tug crew get to a disabled 747. Nonetheless, it was later decided to not be a violation.
