DALLAS (AP) — The air traffic controller on duty when FedEx and Southwest planes nearly collided earlier this year in Texas told investigators that he expected the airliner to take off more quickly — before the incoming FedEx plane reached the same runway. 

What You Need To Know

  • Safety officials are releasing details of their investigation into a close call between a FedEx plane and a Southwest Airlines jet earlier this year in Austin, Texas

  • The National Transportation Safety Board made the details public on Wednesday. The board will likely determine a probable cause for the incident next year

  • The air traffic controller who cleared both planes to use the same runway says he couldn't see the Southwest jet because of thick fog

  • The FedEx pilots saw the Southwest jet at the last minute and aborted their landing, averting a disaster

That is because in his four years working the tower at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the controller said, Southwest planes usually took off as soon as they got permission.

“But hindsight being 20/20,” controller Damian Campbell told investigators, he “definitely could have held them,” referring to making the Southwest crew wait.

Campbell said he couldn't even see the Southwest plane through the dense early morning fog on Feb. 4. The FedEx pilots spotted it at the last second and aborted their landing.

The planes missed each other by about 100 feet.

The National Transportation Safety Board released transcripts of interviews and other details of its investigation Wednesday. The board did not state a probable cause for the harrowing close call. That determination is expected early next year.

The near-disaster in Austin is the scariest among more than a half-dozen close calls that the NTSB has investigated this year.

The surge in such incidents prompted the Federal Aviation Administration — which hires air traffic controllers and manages the nation's airspace — to convene a “safety summit” of aviation industry officials this spring.

A panel of independent experts concluded this month that the FAA needs better staffing, equipment and technology to cope with a surge in serious close calls. The panel said aviation's margin of safety is shrinking.

At a recent congressional hearing, the president of the union representing air traffic controllers complained about understaffing and frequent overtime leading to fatigue.

Campbell, a Navy veteran who had been a controller for 13 years at the time of the Austin incident, said he was on a mandatory six-day work week.

Austin-Bergstrom doesn't have the latest technology, called ASDE-X, for tracking planes and vehicles on the ground — which could have helped prevent the February close call.

“We had this dense ground fog ... you couldn't see anything,” Campbell told investigators. He couldn't see the Southwest jet from the tower.

“It became a concern when I didn't hear Southwest's engines” revving for takeoff on a flight to Cancun, Mexico, he said. “And at that point, it became a critical issue.”