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Monday, October 25, 2010

Phillies' Close Call

Besides facing the surging San Francisco Giants, the Phillies had other problems this weekend on their flight back from the west coast.
In a story reported on October 25th by CBS in an Eye Witness News Exclusive, the Phillies' airplane nearly collided with another airplane that was coming across a runway at the Philadelphia International Airport on Friday morning. 
The Phillies plane was two and a half miles away from landing when the Air Traffic Controller commanded a second plane to traverse across the very same runway that the Phillies' plane was designed to land on.
“That’s when these airplanes typically have an accident.” said aviation attorney Arthur Wolk. “Every airplane that time of the day at this airport was using the very same runway. That creates a problem; it’s a traffic jam.”
After the ATC advised the Phillies' pilot to switch to a new runway and the pilot refused, the plane circled the runway at 3,000 feet before the space was cleared and they were free to land.




"They dodged a bullet, and we're happy for that, but the explanation really does not make sense to me," said Wolk.
The environment within the cabin is unknown, and it is not exactly clear on how the Phillies reacted.
“Oh yeah, we had to circle, circle back around,” calmly stated Phillies' General Manager Ruben Amaro.
One has to wonder what kind of effect this had on this past weekend's series, if any. Even if it was no big deal, it brings to mind that ever scary thought of the idea of an entire sports team being wiped out by a plane crash.

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