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People on the Runway on Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:35 pm
I was working the evening shift at McCarran International, and had been assigned to work in the tower. I was working the "Ground Control" position and we were using runway 25 (now 25R) for arriving and departing jet traffic. As a Delta heavy DC-8 turned off the runway onto taxiway "F" he called me and said "it looks like there was someone on the runway right on the numbers when we landed."
I immediately alerted the supervisor, who started taking the arrivals into 19L. I called the fire station and asked the captain to make a runway "sweep"of runway 25, and told him what Delta had reported.
The Fire captain went out to 25 in the "jeep" and found three boys age 10 laying on the numbers of the runway. They had been getting thrills laying there while jets were zoooooming right over their heads on landing.
And what would have happened if one of the arrivals had been low below the VASI or ILS glideslope and touched down right on the numbers?
I immediately alerted the supervisor, who started taking the arrivals into 19L. I called the fire station and asked the captain to make a runway "sweep"of runway 25, and told him what Delta had reported.
The Fire captain went out to 25 in the "jeep" and found three boys age 10 laying on the numbers of the runway. They had been getting thrills laying there while jets were zoooooming right over their heads on landing.
And what would have happened if one of the arrivals had been low below the VASI or ILS glideslope and touched down right on the numbers?
