Christ almighty.
A plane that was taking off at Springfield-Branson National Airport, Missouri narrowly missed hitting an airport van by a few seconds. The incident occurred on June 27 but the footage has only recently been made public.
As you can see below, the van crosses the runway a mere four seconds before the plane takes off. It’s reported that the employee was running late to a barbecue – hence his actions.
The plane was carrying 50 passengers and three crew members at the time.
Despite the fact that the plane was set to takeoff, the Springfield News-Leader have said that the driver of the van was given clearance to proceed across the runway.
“I decided that due to the time limitations we would cross the runway in order to make it in time. Just as I had cleared runway 20 the Ground Controller cleared me to cross runway 14, I repeated back cleared to cross runway 14 and proceeded at a high rate of speed (to minimise time on the taxiway and runway) down taxiway Uniform,” he noted in his report.
He adds that: “I honestly cannot say for sure that I looked both ways or how far down the runway I might have looked. I accelerated across the runway and heard the aircraft overhead just as we were leaving the runway surface.”
Springfield-Branson National Airport have also issued a statement which reads: “The airport takes safety very seriously. As such, we are reviewing internal operating procedures that may have contributed to this incident. The driver of the van is an airport employee. We cannot comment further because the incident is under investigation and in addition, we do not comment about personnel matters.”
Here’s the startling footage.
Clip via – Associated Press
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