Planes miss each other by 50 feet at DIA

[Gman]

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=62680

At around 7:30 a.m., the NTSB says a Frontier Airlines flight from St. Louis broke out of low clouds as it was about to land.

The Frontier flight crew, on flight 297, saw a Key Lime Air charter plane, flight 4216, had inadvertently entered onto the runway, according to the NTSB.

The pilot of the Key Lime Air plane, headed to Rifle, told investigators he had made a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong runway. This type of incident is called a "runway incursion."

The NTSB says the pilot of the Frontier flight immediately executed a missed approach after the control tower got an alert when an alarm went off. It is estimated the two planes came within 50 feet of each other.

[The1andOnlyKC]

I would bet this happens all the time it happened to me once. Going in for a landing all the sudden we were hauling ass going back up...... For the same reason someone got lost on the runway.

[shrapmetal]

same thing happened to me landing at night in the snow. we were about 25' from touching down and the plane went full throttle right back up.

[Gman]

Do you guys also remember all of those promises that came along with the $5 billion + price tag? DIA was supposed to be able to keep operating in zero visibility due to their large runways being spaced sufficiently apart from each other. :roll:

[7idl]

well, you may be able to get aircraft safely to the ground in zero vis, but the airport, aircraft and flight crew need to be 'certified' for it to happen.
I was certified to do the aircraft systems verifications on the 737, 757, 767 and A319/320.

more often then not, I'd bet that when you came close to landing then it was aborted was due to something called "Decision Height" (DH)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_approach
to sum it up, the runway they're landing on has a DH, the flight crew has to decide at that height if they can see and safely land at that point. IF not, its'a go-around.

There are aircraft that will do everything from takeoff to landing.