The Captain of USair flight was Randy Tilly,a great pilot and friend. He received a safety award and recognition for his actions.

I am a former Piedmont USAir captain. I had this exact situation occur on the same runway. I also refused to take off. Fortunately, the runway was clear, but I didn’t know that so I held in position. I got chewed out by the FAA and my chief pilot. I stand by that decision to this day. The pilot in command is the pilot in command. We better act like it at all times. No regrets.

I am a retired airline pilot. (B727, DC-10, B747)...we were shown this video years ago as part of our recurrent training. I have always held this Captain/crew in HIGHEST REGARD as they were being PRESSURED by ATC to vacate/expedite....(we heard the ATC transmissions). Sully did a great job...but in my opinion..this took tremendous integrity. Well done fellow airmen and others please LEARN from this...most of the time it wouldn't matter..but this time it did. Many lives saved.

The pilot is the final authority in the safety of his aircraft and passengers.

A take off clearance is never an order to take off. Hats off to these USAir pilots for using their discretion properly and declining to take off when they knew something wasn't right.

The pilot should have given that ATC a phone number to call. 😂

That was 22 years after the Tenerife accident, I can't believe the controller didn't learn a lesson from that

I’m a commercial pilot myself and I thank God for the US Airways pilots in this situation! Their situational awareness in this incident more than likely saved hundreds of lives! I am grateful for them and their determination to choose safety first!!

If there's no visibility and no "technology" to pinpoint where everyone is, how the hell does the controller make the assumption that "they're not anywhere near the runway"? The pilot who decided to hold clearly had a working brain.

For all those wondering what happened after the final "OK" from the US Air pilots....the controller and United crew finally figured out where they actually were, and once the controller had them safely cleared and taxiing, the controller again cleared the US Air flight for takeoff. At which point the US Air crew refused AGAIN, saying: "We'd like to have United at a gate." See this excerpt describing the incident from a 1999 Washington Post article (starting from the first moments of the incident): The United crew realized something was wrong and called the tower but reported an incorrect location, apparently believing they were on Cross-Runway 16, clear of the active runway. At about that point, the FedEx cargo plane flew directly overhead. One source close to the investigation said it is possible that the roar of the FedEx engines drowned out the transmission saying the United crew was on a runway. "Somebody just took off," an increasingly concerned United pilot told the tower. It is unclear whether the FedEx or United crew saw the other plane through the fog, or if the controller realized the closeness of the encounter. The controller then began quizzing the United pilots. At least four times the United crew reported their position as Runway 23 Right at Runway 16. In truth they were at Runway 23 Left at Runway 16, directly in the path of the US Airways plane, but out of sight 4,000 feet down the runway. Apparently satisfied that the United plane was out of the way, the controller gave the US Airways plane clearance to take off. The US Airways crew, having listened to the radio conversation between the controller and the United crew, refused. A source who interviewed both pilots extensively said they held back because of the "tone of uncertainty" in the United pilots' voices. Both pilots said they immediately rejected any idea of takeoff, the source said, with the captain telling the co-pilot, "No, don't take that," just as the co-pilot said, "I don't want to do that." "Where's United?" the crew asked the controller. The controller assured them that United was clear, the US Airways crew told an investigator. The crew told the investigator that the controller grew frustrated, telling them again that the United plane was out of the way, but the US Airways crew was adamant. Again, the controller began quizzing the United crew about their location. It was then that the United crew determined their true location. Once the plane was safely taxiing toward the terminal, the controller told the US Airways crew to taxi onto the active runway and prepare for departure. Again, the US Airways crew refused, saying, "We'd like to have United at a gate." US Airways declined to name its crew or to discuss the details of the event.

I was involved in a very similar situation in Alaska in the late 80s. There was an airport vehicle lost on the airfield at night, in the fog. The vehicle was in contact with the tower, but obvious had missed turns twice. This was prior to the ground radar system that exists now. ATC called a ground stop, and luckily had some time before the next arrival. ATC ordered the state vehicle to simply stop, hold their position and wait for an escort vehicle to come out and lead them back to ramp area. The vehicle was being operated by a high level member of the airport staff, and suffice it to say, he wasn’t happy. A controller who was primarily concerned with safety, and being forceful helped avoid a potential accident. (Not caring about the driver’s ego or pride)

Man I love all the comments of former and current pilots who take this scenario and lesson to heart. You all constantly live up to rigorous standards and it makes an enthusiast and passenger like myself have complete confidence in the air crews I encounter. You guys are simply awesome!

As a retired controller, I can say this has never happened at the places I worked, some very fog prone, but the standard reply to such a situation was " All aircraft on tower frequency hold your present position. Due to visibility, we need to account for all traffic. Stand by".

The jaw-dropping moment for me is when she says, "You shouldn't be anywhere near Kilo" -- She's _so close_ to recognizing the gravity of the situation, but she still misses the point.

9:15 my university professor touched on this same topic by explaining the “5 LEVELS OF COMPETENCE” 1 - unconscious incompetence - where you are oblivious to how much you don’t know 2 - conscious incompetence - you’re still not capable, but are aware of how little you actually know 3 - conscious competence - with focus, you can achieve your task 4 - unconscious competence (the ideal) - where you’ve gotten good enough at something it’s almost second nature 5 - unconscious INDIFFERENCE (the dangerous) - where you’ve gotten so routine at things you start to exhibit a lack of care and don’t think about things properly. That the other pilots declined to takeoff til issue resolved and we’re paying attention is a prime example of this :)

They showed great sense in standing firm in their beliefs.... and saved a lot of lives in the process.

I flew for US Air when this happened, I was 25 years old. It made the news. I'm a 737 Capt now at another airline and more than double the age. I have never forgotten this lesson. I listen to everything. Ipads are great, but no replacement for instinct and real situational awareness. Expectation Bias is a force to be reckoned with. It can happen to anyone. (Obviously with ATC Too) When in doubt, set the brake and hit the mike.

The pilot was a true hero. To not just fall into the trap of following "orders" from others takes a lot of strength.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is one of the BEST episodes you've made, 74 Gear!!! 👍 The Flight Crew on USAir 2998 are HEROES. No matter what the outcome could have been, they maintain situational awareness and refuses the TO clearance. This is the GOLD STANDARD for all Flight Crews, regardless of 10-9 sheets or electronic solutions. Situational Awareness is just as important for Flight Safety today, as it was back then when this incident occurred. The United Crew also did a good job by simply stopping and reporting when reality clashed with their mental models. They could have fallen into the Confirmation Bias Trap such as the one which lead to tragedy on Linate Airport, Milan, Italy, in October of 2001 with 118 fatalities and 4 injuries.

W O W! What a career call! Props to those US Air pilots. 300 people had no idea they were going to die that night. Had those pilots in both planes not made the choices and communications they did

I love the way the USAir pilot lowkey backed up the United pilots and simultaneously told the controller without coming out and saying "you need to deal with this" told her to deal with it.

I don't understand how the controller can say both that she cannot see anything from the tower AND that she is completely certain they are not near a runway at the same time. How can she possible confirm this? If she's relying on the pilots calling to her to tell her where they are, why is she not listening to them when they are telling her where they are? Does she not think the pilots have to deal with the weather too? That they couldn't have possibly made a mistake and ended up in the wrong spot? Like, what the hell was she even thinking? Terrible professionalism on her part.

This guy’s stories are EPIC. Every one of them.

My late father RCAF and Airline pilot in the 1950’s and 1960’s often spoke about always maintaining good situational awareness. Particularly when flying, but also driving your car, even walking on a sidewalk! He was RCMP in late 1940’s before becoming a pilot. That mantra of having good situational awareness has served me well in my 62 years as a non-pilot. I would say it’s the most important skill a pilot requires. Kudos on the video. 👍

Shockingly unbelievable that the United crew told the controller that they were on an actove runway and her response was effectively, "No, you're not!" without having visual or any other confirmation of where the United was. In a system where aircraft position is determined by reporting, to tell a crew they are not where they report they are is beyond comprehension.

I can say one thing, if I had a pilot insist he was on a runway, I think I’d want to pause and rethink my own blind assumptions.

Thinking it’s just going to “work out” is a very real phenomena that occurs in all walks of life. It takes a lot of discipline to be prepared to be embarrassed or criticized to do the right thing sometimes.

I am obsessed with accident analysis, this is my favorite so far ! The accident that never was. So many great nuggets. People make the difference, those checks and balances :)

Props to the pilots for sticking to their professionalism. Their extreme show of character saved lives and gives example for everyone in their field.

My brother is a pilot and instructor for a large airline company, he has said that pilots need to be taught that it’s ok to say ‘unable’ when they feel unsafe about a clearance or instruction that ATC has given. This is a perfect example. The US Air pilots were unable to take off due to safety concerns.

This has an interesting feel of a hybrid between one of your usual videos and a Mentour Pilot video. And I mean that as the highest compliment. You both have your own unique styles and this video felt like a combination of both of them but in a very good way. 👍

I love how unbothered by the controller the US Air crew sounds. "Nope, we're not doing it, and we do not give a flying flip if you don't like it." More people need to be like those pilots.

Edit clarification. After a little googling. After hearing the confusion of UAL, US Air declined takeoff clearance until it was reported that UAL had reached the terminal. Pilots of UAL were sent for additional training. ATC wasn’t officially faulted but sent for remedial training before returning to duty.

I am really shocked at the ATC's attitude. If I had been any of those pilots I would have filed a formal complaint. The lost craft repeatedly tried to tell the tower they were lost and the ATC repeatedly belittled the pilot because she knew better. With her piss poor attitude & total disregard for the lives of hundreds she should not be in that position, ever. Kudos to the professional, humble & insightful pilots in all the craft.

Your website was the very first and only website I have ever subscribed to. Thank you for your presentation.

A horrible situation for everyone involved to have experienced (including the air traffic controller). From what I presume, three things emerged from this: 1. Nobody got hurt. 2. Many got to hear about it, and therefore it was able to provide a valuable lesson. 3. This event scenario can now be used time and time again to train and teach others involved in aircraft movement and aircraft management operations. Thanks for this video and the commentary. It is really appreciated.

I was flying a 767 at the time and can really relate to paper charts and taxiing, especially at night in rain. At certain airports, ORD and JFK come to mind, taxiing was the most intense and difficult part of the flight. London had the best system. You simply followed the taxi way centre line lights that were programmed by the ground controller. "You are cleared to gate (..), follow the lights."

Being older, I am now way more pragmatic on following ATC instructions. They are generally correct. But before acting I now literally ask myself, “Am i willing to bet my life on that?”. It forces me to double and TRIPLE check my situation and the positions/movement of others before potentially moving into harm’s way. Checks and balances because “it’s yours to lose.”

ATC should’ve been fired. Incompetence mixed with arrogance is a dangerous thing.

Great instructional video. While working on my Comm Instr my CFI who was also an aircrew man on a P3 and I were heading back to the home airport from HNL, a red star field at the time. It was just before dusk. We had been cleared to taxi on runway and hold. We got the clearance to t/o and started to roll when all we could hear was our call sign and a controller screaming abort, abort, abort. We did without a second thought. Maybe a couple of seconds later a NW Orient 747 passed directly overhead with minimal clearance. Four pilots and a controller breathed a huge sigh of relief that was audible. The 747 went around, we were released for t/o and headed home. Known for his calm under fire approach to life in general, my CFI (the second one to utter basically the same words) said, "my wife would've hated being such a young widow," with a big grin. Just another day in naval aviation.

One of the most important skills that a pilot can have is knowing when Not to fly. Cheers to these guys. 🍻

This particular incident was covered every year during my airline career recurrent training. It is a cautionary tale about numerous people making mistakes and a smaller number demonstrating good judgment.

The United 1448 / ATC communication was one of the primary examples we had when we brought Crew Resource Management training to my IT teams in Germany. This was great CRM and communication by the US Air crew.

As someone who flew in the 90's, I look back fondly on the old charts, as much as they were a pain to open and follow at times, but I agree with you 74, the level of situational awareness then was much higher than it is today. The technology now is incredible and immensely helpful, but we seemed to have lost something along the way.

I remember when this happened. It was my first few months flying for US. The captain of 2998 was the first captain I flew with on the -200 after OE. He is AWESOME.

12:47 "...Despite the controller making it sound like THEY were the crazy ones." This applies in so many facets of life. Always do what you feel is right regardless of how others try to make you feel. Hopefully that controller learned a valuable lesson, realized it's possible for her to be wrong sometimes, and got her ego in check.

Likely massive fatality situation avoided. Top marks to the pilots.

"What I do know is, that controller was immediately fired." - I wish that's what he said there at the end.

This incident was really even worse than how Kelsey showed it. After the refusal of the first take off clearance, the tower cleared US Air to take off again! They once again had to refuse it and insist that the United flight be parked at their gate before they would move. It took a bunch of back and forth between the united flight and ATC to figure out where they were and it became clear how they were in fact in the way.

One thing I learned while Paragliding was the concept of Airmanship. And that good Airmanship is not only about technical skills but also situational awareness and decision making. And that the decision not to fly is also part of good Airmanship.

This ATC hopefully moved to a better position like store clerk or Uber driver.

Back when I was training for my instrument rating, flying a Cessna Cardinal RG, it was a day with Santa Ana winds in Southern California (winds blowing out of the desert, so opposite of usual, blowing from the ocean). A lot of the local airports were using runways opposite of normal, so it was a good opportunity to practice shooting unusual approaches. One of them was the localizer back course at Santa Ana (John Wayne Int'l), which is both a GA and commercial airport, the approach is largely over the Catalina Channel (essentially the ocean). So we were approaching from the north, I was wearing an IFR hood, my instructor was visual, looking for traffic. As we were nearing the turn onto the LOC back course, listening in on the approach frequency, we became aware that a commercial jet was also approaching their turn onto the localizer back course from the South. Based on the distances given to the intercept by the controller of both my plane and theirs, our likely speeds, and that the jet was going to be first, my judgement was that I was going to intercept just behind the jet, and be in their wake (and remember since it's a LOC BC, it's a step down approach, with no vertical guidance, and with the winds blowing, the wake would carry into me with less drop). Instead of accepting the instruction to intercept, I asked for permission to do essentially a 270 for spacing. The controller gave attitude but said "approved" and that's what we did. We DID feel turbulence passing through the LOC BC, whether that was the jet's wake or not, I don't know. After we were established on the inbound track, my instructor said to me "I'm impressed you did that, because I could SEE where the jet was and I was going to say something if you didn't." On the ground in the run up area we discussed situational awareness, the fact that neither of us wanted an upset out over the channel at night (did I mention it was the evening?), and that the controller was likely unaccustomed to the reverse approaches as well. How many times do pilots make choices that might save lives? We weren't going to collide, I'm certain, but my small airplane being flipped upside down by wake turbulence wouldn't have ended well. It was not the first time I would've been slotted in behind a heavier aircraft in Southern California, and I know well that the first thing is that you smell the barbeque (the burnt jet fuel exhaust) a fraction before you get the wake. Situational awareness is everything.

after the pilot told the controller they were at an active runway and the controller told them it wasn't one, I would have been sorely tempted to make a mental note to give the controller a number to call when the situation was sorted out. that or simply say, "well, then an airplane just took off from your taxiway."

ATC 35 years. I was working at another Tower in New England when this event happened. I have never been so embarrassed by the conduct of a fellow 'professional'. Even now, 20+ years after the event, hearing this transcript again still makes my blood boil. The silver lining is that PVD was moved up on the priority list to get the ASDE-X ground radar. The bottom line is that it takes the active participation of air traffic control AND pilots to keep the system safe. Kudos to those USAir pilots!

I appreciate your reminders to the audience that the information we are seeing on our screens are nothing like what they were "seeing" during the incident. Putting yourself into the shoes of the controller, the lost pilots or the US Air team holding short is itself a useful skill to appreciate how simple things can go wrong in the moment, even when they seem obvious in retrospect.

You can hear in tower controller’s voice that she is completely unsuited for that job. I remember this incident at the time. The USAIr pilots were awarded an airmanship award by ALPA. I don’t remember what happened to the tower controller by but I believe she ended up continuing to work in ATC. It’s been my experience that controllers in the USA are fantastic. She is an exception to that experience.

"Again, the US Airways crew refused, saying, "We'd like to have United at a gate." The ending of the story was not covered in the video but I like to imagine this as the pilots way of telling the controller "You were wrong once, you almost got us all killed, and now you will sit there and wait until you know." It is about the most perfect professional smackdown I can imagine.

I agree with you. The crew that simply said, Okay. But they stayed put until the thing was sorted out, are the heroes of this story.✅👏

Ignoring the lessons learned from Tenerife is astonishing. Thanks for the vid Kelsey

Reminds me of back-up cameras on cars. ... Soon nobody will know how to reverse a car without them. Good video. 👍

Hey, Kelsey! Thank you so much for all that you share. It is fascinating, and most appreciated! ✈️

What a phenomenal breakdown about putting safety over expedience. I really like that you highlighted this situation because it is something that gets heavily over looked and under valued in many industries. I work around heavy equipment and have had many instances where being patient and cautious when dealing with a multi-faceted situation potentially prevented an accident. Safety and people are more important than any piece of equipment or saving a couple minutes of time.

One of my earliest instructors in the 1970’s taught me to always be aware of what tower is asking you to do rather than just repeating what they say, because it could save your life! This incident is a perfect example of that lesson… exemplified by the US Air crew.

Kelsey, I love how you tackled this story! I know you've been talking about how you'd like to vary the content you produce, but it occurs to me that you are well-suited to do historical event-based videos, similar to what Petter does in Mentour Pilot. Plus, you add a unique pilot perspective to it, and in your own self-deprecating way, you compare the situations to what you personally have been through and how you've learned from it. Just great work on this, and if possible, I'd love to see more videos like this. Good job, man!

As a passenger, landing at MacCarron in Las Vegas after (it turns out) a long weather delay, our plane did a sudden climb above the threshold and went around as another plane passed under us landing on the crossing runway. Everybody had GPS's. It still comes down to situational awareness and deprioritizing the airline stuff like gate schedules, connections, etc.

I love your channel. Very informative, very carefully put together videos and most importantly, you give us commentating as a real life pilot.

It should be remembered that, in 1991, a USAir flight landed on a Skywest flight that was still on the active runway at LAX killing 23. It was due to ATC error.

A single, huge, word to compliment that crew's attitude: Airmanship.

One of the best "Lessons Learned" events of all time regarding situational awareness, clear radio communication and professionalism. Good vid, good share, great channel!

I work tower at a heavily fogged airport in Norway, and we have clear LVP procedures to have only one vehicle moving on the AoR for the given frequency during heavy fog, even though we have ground radar. This is to ensure no situations like this actually causing an incident.

Those pilots learned from the Tenerife disaster. Good job on making sure not to let that happen again

I was in my early teens when my Mom was a CFI and FAA designated examiner. One of the first women. She gave me the task of changing the pages in her Jeppsson manuals when the stack of new pages came in. At the time i didn’t know the differences but later when she flew me through 100 % ifr towards a landing at minimums at then one runway Orange County Airport that i realized the importance. I think that was the most concentrated i have ever seen a human being then or to this day 60ish years later. Never scared, just focused 100% plus on situational awareness thanks Mom for everything!!!!

As a former US Airways Flight Attendant (Airbus A330) I was always very impressed by the maturity and professionalism of our pilots.

That controller better have been fired… I can’t believe she cleared a take off knowing there’s a plane on an unknown active runway …. Absolutely INSANE

The thing controllers hate hearing from pilots "pull the tapes." It's basically the same as the controller saying "I have a number for you to copy, please advise when ready."

I fly out of PVD. That controller sounds like the cranky one we have there. Last week she was clearance delivery and ground. I called for clearance. No reply after about 30 seconds. No traffic on the radio. I called again. She replied " Sorry you are impatient and couldn't wait 30 seconds." My CFI and I were shocked ( I am IFR Training).

Thank you for sharing this. The PanAm/KLM disaster at Tenerife in the 1970s was caused by fog and a taxiing plane on an active runway and some communication problems between ATC and the pilots. We salute the USAir pilots for their prudence which avoided another disaster.

It takes a lot of guts for the 74Gear Host to admit that he’s made this exact same mistake (except he took off and said, “let’s go!”). I hope he does a video on how he avoided a collision. We’ve all made mistakes, it takes a real person to admit to doing it too. God Bless!

Such a smart move to question EVERYTHING. There is nothing equal to "IFR" when taxiing. Planes have a stopping distance similar to trains rather than vehicles once they build momentum so if their path wasn't guaranteed clear, they did an amazing job. As a junior pilot I had an incident where another aircraft had a severe language barrier. The tower would say to do something and they read it back sort of right, but then did something totally different. This happened several times in a row and it got really scary. The rest of us up there literally had no idea what that aircraft would do next and so all of us (we were in the pattern to land) contacted tower and asked to peel off on dowwind, crosswind, even base. It was chaotic but we all feviated slightly to help the controller clear his airspace to handle a really bad situation. We were all listening to everything, not just the traffic that pertained to our individual aircraft. That pilot got a deviation and the rest of us got a heartfelt thank you from the tower that day. It cost me about 15 minutes (plenty of fuel, hours left) but nobody died. Life is good when everybody pitches in to help out!

Awesome example of situational awareness. My father was an Air Force pilot and I can’t tell you how many times we would talk about this concept. Part of dads school of life! Just made my kids watch this. Thank you!

Good vid and well explained to those who aren't in the business. I'm a 19 yr 121 guy, and I love the situational awareness with GPS that the ipad now affords us. But I never rely on it, I still listen on the frequency to everything going around me just like I did in my flight instructing days all those years ago. Keeping track of other instructors on the practice area frequency: where they were, what they were doing and what altitude they were at doing manouvers at was airmanship well learned, and still retained and used.

Few minutes later USair flight pilot said "We will not depart until you have visual confirmation of the pane at the docks" makes that incidents even way way way better, PLUS he has a huge sets of balls.

As a retired controller I can say this is shown to every new controller that comes in the building of my last place. I didn’t work at providence but I worked with someone that was working in that tower at the time.

I personally don't like to point fingers of blame on these videos because I view them as learning opportunities to broaden my understanding and perspective regarding various aviation scenarios. In this case, I feel both the Untied and US Air flight crews did an exceptional job of communicating with the tower while holding their respective positions which prevented what could have been a very catastrophic accident. Kelsey, your interpretation of the comms from a pilots viewpoint are priceless!!

The controller simply had a plan in her head and she wasn't going to deviate from it. The correct action was hold everything and get things clear, then plan around it.

It annoys me that the ATC keeps making the point that she can’t see so why on earth was she not listening and taking the pilots seriously? Doesn’t seem clever on her behalf and hope that she apologised afterwards

As a controller, you do develop a sense when somethings not right. This controller ignored the warning signs... a pilot saying they're not where they think they should be. Thankfully the USAir pilot picked up on it and did the right thing and waited.

Watching some of your videos, getting ready to turn off the tv when this one came on. It immediately caught my interest so had to watch it. Instantly brought back memories of the accident in DTW, Dec 3rd, 1990. Scanning through a lot of comments, but it looks like no one else mentioned it. Similar weather conditions. A DC-9 crew (NW1482) was redirected while taxiing in fog. They became disoriented, ending up on an active runway. The situation became critical and ATC told them (something to the effect of get off that runway immediately). Meanwhile a B727 (NW299) was already on his take off roll. I believe that the DC-9 crew started to turn left onto the grass when the 3-holer's R/H wing tore through the R/H side of the DC-9's fuselage opening it up like a can opener, from cockpit to tail, right about window level or just above. I saw the DC-9 in the hangar a few days later; not a pretty sight. Bad situation. I'm sure that the controller would have called for a ground stop, but it happened so fast.

I like it when the controllers actually act like controllers. A few years ago a friend of mine rescued a rotting DC-3 in Quebec. And when they finally were ready for the celebration flight it was an ATC circus. To make matters worse half the pilots spoke English and half spoke French and that poor lady in the tower was talking at 200 knots while all these little birds were clucking about wanting clearance. Finally she laid down the law in both official languages. Essentially told them to sit down and shut up and wait. And the line I loved the most at the end was -- with strong emphasis --"DO NOT CALL BACK." And then the old Douglas took to the sky for the first time in decades. ✈️

I was repositioning a CRJ900 and was told I could cross the active runway. I looked up and saw a planes landing lights on final approach. I told the controller that I couldn’t go due to the landing aircraft. She nearly had a heart attack and told me to hold position. When I got to the terminal she asked me to call her cell phone. She fell all over herself apologizing. Scary night for me.

Discretion is the better part of valor. Everyday heroes just might be the people who know that what they don’t know, could kill them. Well done.

An excellent commentary on what can go wrong.. Situational awareness, while driving, boating, flying , critical to personal safety and everything that is within our sphere of conscientious liability.

Among your best videos, Kelsey. Bravo.

I remember situations like this from flying with my Dad in our Cessna 182. He had a commercial license and was instrument rated, but he didn't fly professionally. I used to help him update his Jeppsen manuals and navigate around new airports, so I know how easy it is to get turned around. I think the biggest lesson he taught me is that the pilot in command is in charge. This is a perfect example of Dad's wisdom.

It amazes me that more people don't get hurt or die on a daily basis, simply because they are not paying attention to their surroundings. I have trained myself to be aware of my surroundings at all times. I work in manufacturing plants, and on machines and locations i don't know, as i am only at a site for a day or two at most. There's so much stuff around that can hurt, maim, or straight up kill you. And yet i see people walking with their head in their cell phone, headphones in, not paying attention. It boggles the mind, it truly does. Situational awareness is for everybody. It's your own health and life you are protecting. And, if you have a family, your family as well. Especially children, they have no concept of how dangerous the world truly is.

Excellent summary and story of the USAir Pilot's refusal to takeoff!! Keep up to the good work. I really enjoy your stories.

The few pilots I know all said the same thing: always be extremely aware during take-off and landing, you can relax a bit on auto-pilot. And they share a few stories of their own some of the other close calls that don't make it out in public like this one.

You have to remember that back in '99, there was no social media. Such recordings were not sought after. I'm sure if we actually went to the archives we could find quite a few instances like this where ATC acted like complete bags of garbage.

This only worked out because everyone was on the same frequency and speaking the same language. That so often isn't the case, which could easily lead to disaster. If the lost aircraft had been on a ground frequency or had been speaking a local language, the other pilots would have had no idea.

I worked as a baggege handler for 19years with USAIR/ USAIRWAYS. Best job and Co-workers anyone could wish for. Miss it everyday!!! Proud to see our Pilots made a great call...❤