Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Denver International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Denver, Colorado
Friday, January 5, 2007 7:28 MST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
At 0728 MST (1428 UTC) a runway incursion occurred involving Key Lime Air (LYM) flight 4216, an SW4, and Frontier (FFT) flight 297, an A319, at Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, Colorado.
At 0725:00, the DEN ground controller instructed LYM4216 to taxi to runway 34 via taxiways M and AA. According the SW4 pilot, blowing snow reduced his visibility and taxiway SC was covered with snow that prevented him from seeing the centerline lighting. As he attempted to find the centerline lighting, he saw blue taxi lights, followed them and turned onto runway 35L.
According to the recorded airport surface detection equipment (ASDE), LYM4216 entered runway 35L at taxiway M2 at 0727:06.
At 0728:10, the ground controller asked the LYM4216 pilot his location. The pilot advised he was abeam Signature. Once the controller asked his location, the pilot stated that he noticed that he was on a runway.
The First Officer of FFT297 reported, "the Captain and I were flying back to Denver from St. Louis. The weather had deteriorated in Denver so we prepared to fly a full instrument approach. We were cleared to land on runway 35L by tower. I believe we broke out of the clouds around 600 feet. The visibility conditions were ½ mile with blowing snow. We both looked down the runway and confirmed verbally to each other that the runway was clear. We didn't see the aircraft until we were about 100 to 50 feet or so above the deck. When it did come into sight, it was at least 2,000 feet down the runway. The winds combined with the prop wash from the aircraft along with blowing snow is what caused it to be obscured and out of sight. I immediately commenced a go around as soon as the aircraft was in sight. The tower was given warning from its collision avoidance system not more than a couple of seconds later."
At 0728:17, AMASS provided an aural and visual alert for an occupied runway and 4 seconds later, the tower controller instructed FFT297 to "go around". The aircraft missed colliding by approximately 50 feet.
Weather at the time of the incident was 600 overcast, 1100 broken, visibility 1/2 mile, light snow, mist, wind 030 at 12, runway visual range on runway 35L was 5,500 feet.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The probable cause of the incident was the Key Lime Air flight 4216 pilot's inadvertant entry onto the active runway. A contributing factor to the incident was the failure of the Denver tower ground and local controllers to detect the aircraft on the airport movement area safety system (ASDE) display and issue a go-around instruction to the arrival flight crew.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 1/5/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Friday |
| Time of Event | 728 |
| Event Time Zone | Mountain Standard Time |
| Event City | Denver |
| Event State | COLORADO |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | -- |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 1 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | Denver International |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | DEN |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 5431 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | DEN |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | -- |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 600 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | -- |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 0.5 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -4 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -5 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 30 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 12 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.82 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 51 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 22754 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jan 5 2007 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Nov 30 2007 3:42PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\lema |
| Basic weather conditions | Instrument Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
||
|---|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
Aircraft #2 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | -- | -- |
| NTSB Number | OPS07IA001A | OPS07IA001B |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | -- | -- |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes | Yes |
| Damage | None | None |
| Aircraft Fire | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Explosion | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Swearingen | Airbus Industrie |
| Aircraft Model | SW-4 | A-319 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | -- | N915FR |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- | -- |
| Number of Engines | -- | -- |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- | -- |
| ELT Installed | -- | Yes |
| ELT Activated | -- | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | -- | No |
| ELT Type | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Owner State | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Country | -- | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | -- | -- |
| Operator Name | -- | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | -- | -- |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | -- | -- |
| Operator Street Address | 13252 E. Control Tower Rd. | 7001 Tower Road |
| Operator City | Englewood | Denver |
| Operator State | CO | CO |
| Operator Country | USA | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 80112 | 80249 |
| Operator Code | LYM | FFT |
| Owner has at least one certificate | -- | -- |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Non-scheduled | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Cargo | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes | No |
| Departure Airport Code | -- | STL |
| Departure City | Denver | St. Louis |
| Departure State | CO | MO |
| Departure Country | USA | USA |
| Departure Time | -- | -- |
| Departure Time Zone | MST | -- |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | -- | DEN |
| Destination City | -- | Denver |
| Destination State | -- | CO |
| Destination Country | -- | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Taxi - to takeoff | Landing - aborted |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Nov 19 2007 3:18PM | Nov 19 2007 3:18PM |
| User who most recently changed record | ROWS | ROWS |
| Since inspection or accident | -- | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | -- | 35L |
| Runway Length | -- | 12000 |
| Runway Width | -- | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No | No |
| Medical Flight | -- | -- |