![]() A snowstorm had passed through the Detroit area earlier in the day, but by midday, precipitation had stopped and temperatures rose above the freezing point, leaving the airport draped in fog. Northwest officials acknowledged that visibility was hampered by the fog-preventing pilots from seeing more than a quarter-mile in front of them, according to National Weather Service accounts. The DC-9 pilot discovered at the very last moment where he was, and so the ground controller told him to immediately get off that runway, but it was too late.” The controllers’ spokesman, Tom Dresden, said that “the (DC-9) pilot gave the ground controller erroneous information about his position and turned right onto the runway where the 727 was taxiing. said that early reports from the scene indicated that “the DC-9 pilot became lost on the runways.” Northwest officials said the DC-9 was to have left on an adjacent runway, but Braun said the plane was due to leave on the runway used by the 727.Īdding to the confusion, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. Although the 727 was cleared for takeoff on that runway, there was uncertainty over whether the DC-9 also had permission to be there. The two planes were on the same 8,500-foot runway, heading almost directly for each other when they collided, said Robert Braun, the county’s director of airports. The spokesman said that the collision “appeared to have been head-on-based on the right wing striking the right fuselage.” “The fog made visibility difficult,” said Northwest spokesman Robert Gibbons. ![]()
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