On January 18, 1990, about 1904, an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727, flight 111, while landing on the runway in night visual conditions, collided with an Epps Air Service Beechcraft King Air A100, N44UE, at the William Hartsfield International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia. The King Air had been cleared to land on runway 26 right ahead of the Eastern flight and was in its landing roll. It was struck from behind by the B-727, which had also been cleared to land on runway 26 right. The B-727 sustained substantial damage, but none of the 149 passengers or 8 crewmembers onboard were injured. The King Air was destroyed as a result of the collision. The pilot of the King Air sustained fatal injuries, and the copilot, the only other occupant, sustained severe injuries.
We determined that the probable causes of this accident were (1) the failure of thP. Federal Aviation Administration to provide air traffic control procedures that adequately take into consideration human pertormance factors such as those which resulted in the failure of the north local controller to detect the developing conflict between N44UE and EA 111, and (2) the failure of the north local controller to ensure the separation of arriving aircraft which were using the same runway.
Contributing to the accident was the failure of the north lccal controller to follow the prescribed procedure of issuing appropriate traffic informatior to EA 111, and failure of the north final controller and the radar monitor controller to issue timely speed reductions to maintain adequate separation between aircraft on final approach.
The safety issues raised in this report include:
- Air traffic controller procedures and Compliance with requirements for final approach separation and clearance to land.
- Conspicuity of airplane lighting.
- Limitations of tha "see and avoid" principle in the night landing, final approach environment.
- Effectiveness of airport surface detection equipment (ASDE) the Airport Movement Area Sctfety System (AMASS) and Airport Surface Traffic Automation (ASTA) to preclude similar runway incursion accidents.
As a result of this investigation, we made five recommendations to the FAA intended to prevent runway incursion accidents.
