“HOLD SHORT!!!’
(This is a true story. The author asks to remain anonymous.)
DECEMBER 24, 1987
Christmas Eve. Virtually every flight in and out of the Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport was filled to capacity with holiday travelers. The weather was cloudy, overcast but visibility was good, which meant that most flights were operating on time. I was flying as an SA227 Metroliner First Officer for a large regional airline. It was near the end of our day and the Captain and I were looking forward to parking the airplane and spending the night at home with our families. But we weren’t done yet. We still had a few hundred yards to go. And I had learned the hard way back in my days as a corporate pilot that things can still go wrong even when you think you are done. That lesson was learned one day when I wasn’t paying close enough attention and crunched a wingtip on a hangar post when putting the airplane away for the night. For the rest of my career I operated on the principle that you’re not done until you are completely done.
So all those years later, as we were taxiing to the terminal in Cincinnati, I was paying attention to what was going on around us and heard the ground controller clear a bright and shiny silver Boeing 727 to “taxi to Runway 27 Left on Kilo 3. Hold short of Runway 27 Right.” This was nothing uncommon. You hear it every day at every airport. The only slightly unusual aspect was that Kilo 3 crossed 27R at a 135 degree angle, a “reverse hi-speed”. Which meant that the captain of the 727 would not have as good a view of traffic on the runway. But that didn’t matter because they were going to hold short and wait for the controller to tell them when to cross. And safety and common sense would dictate that he would still glance over his shoulder before crossing the runway. That’s how it was supposed to work.
The 727 replied, “Roger,” and began its taxi. A little faster than what you normally see, but I supposed they wanted to get back home to their Dallas base and celebrate Christmas with their families, too. I couldn’t help but remember … a couple years earlier I had interviewed for a job with them and was disappointed when they rejected me. Maybe I would have been on that airplane if only I’d been hired. But you bloom where you’re planted, and for the time being I was in Cincinnati flying a Metroliner.
I watched as one of our company Bandits (Embraer 110 Bandeirante aircraft) taxied onto Runway 27 Right and commenced its takeoff roll. And the 727 was taxiing way too fast to hold short of 27R as instructed. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Two fully-loaded airplanes were going to collide on the runway. And it was not impossible that the carnage would spread to other aircraft in the immediate vicinity such as ours.
I turned to my captain and said, “He’s not going to hold short!”
His mouth dropped open, and he repeated what I’d just said. “He’s not going to hold short!”
And then … I don’t know how else to accurately describe it … it was like the hand of God slapped me in the face and I snapped out of it. I grabbed the microphone and shouted over the ground control frequency, “HOLD SHORT!!!”
The 727 captain slammed on the brakes, barely stopping just as the Bandit whizzed by their nose. The 727 crew said nothing. Ground Control said nothing. We taxied to the ramp. And hundreds of people made it home for Christmas.
They say everything happens for a reason. I don’t know about that, but I do believe everything that happens does contain something you can file away and use later. Like me not being hired by the other company, putting me in the Metroliner, in Cincinnati at the precise time I needed to be there. Like the hangar rash mishap causing me to pay attention even though we were within a minute of shutting down engines on the ramp.
Merry Christmas