NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA23FA149
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
the local controller’s incorrect assumption that the Southwest Airlines (SWA) airplane would depart from the runway before the Federal Express airplane arrived on the same runway, which resulted in a loss of separation between both airplanes. Contributing to the controller’s incorrect assumption were his expectation bias regarding the SWA airplane’s departure, his lack of situational awareness regarding the SWA airplane’s position when the flight crew requested takeoff clearance, and the air traffic control tower’s lack of training (before the incident) on low visibility operations. Contributing to the incident was the SWA flight crewmembers’ failure to account for the traffic that was on short final approach and to notify the controller that they would need additional time on the runway before the takeoff roll. Also contributing to the incident was the Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to require surface detection equipment at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and direct alerting for flight crews.
Factual narrative
On February 4, 2023, about 0640 central standard time, Southwest Airlines (SWA) flight 708, a Boeing 737-700, N7827A, and Federal Express Corporation (FedEx) flight 1432, a Boeing 767-300, N297FE, were involved in a runway incursion at Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, Texas. The flight crew of the FedEx airplane, which was arriving on runway 18L, executed a missed approach as the SWA airplane was departing from the same runway. The 128 occupants aboard the SWA airplane and the 3 occupants aboard the FedEx airplane were not injured, and neither airplane sustained damage. SWA flight 708 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121 from AUS to Cancún International Airport (CUN), Cancún, Mexico. FedEx flight 1432 was a domestic cargo flight operating under Part 121 from Memphis International Airport (MEM), Memphis, Tennessee, to AUS. Night instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the incident. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Expectation/assumption-ATC personnel
- — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Task monitoring/vigilance-ATC personnel
- — Organizational issues-Support/oversight/monitoring-Training-Recurrent training-ATC
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Communication (personnel)-Lack of communication-Flight crew
- — Organizational issues-Support/oversight/monitoring-Enforcement-Equipment requirements-FAA/Regulator
- — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring environment-Flight crew
- — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Indicating/recording systems-Data recorders (flight/maint)-Design
- — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Expectation/assumption-ATC personnel
- — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring other aircraft-ATC personnel
- — Organizational issues-Support/oversight/monitoring-Training-Recurrent training-ATC
- — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring environment-Pilot of other aircraft
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Communication (personnel)-Lack of communication-Pilot of other aircraft
- — Organizational issues-Support/oversight/monitoring-Enforcement-Equipment requirements-FAA/Regulator
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2023_DCA23FA149.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway incursion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2023 · SKYbrary article
Runway Incursion — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary runway incursion review — taxonomy (operational error, vehicle/pedestrian, pilot deviation), severity categories A-D, mitigation technologies (ASDE-X, ASSC, RAAS, RIAAS).
- Semantic Scholar 2023 · Article (Future Transportation)
Investigating Runway Incursion Incidents at United States Airports
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the number of runway incursions is increasing. Over the last two decades, the number of runway incursions at U.S.
- FAA-affiliated R&D (MITRE / Volpe / FAA Tech Center) 2022 · MITRE risk analysis
Runway Incursion Prevention Systems — Surface Domain Risk Analysis
MITRE risk analysis of runway-incursion prevention systems (RIPS) — ASDE-X / ASSC + Airport Surface Detection Equipment performance characterization. Findings drove FAA Surface Safety Action Plan.
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article (Journal of Physics: Conference Series)
Comparison of Detection Technology for Runway Incursion Prevention in Airport Hot Spot
The prevention of runway incursion in hot spot of airports has always been one of the research hot spots in the field of international civil aviation.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2020 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Analysis of Runway Incursion Trends: Implications for Cost-Benefit Analysis of Mitigation Investments
This causal-comparative and correlation study investigated the costs of runway incursion safety improvements in relation to their effectiveness to assess potential aviation system benefits.Two airport…
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article
Analysis of Runway Incursion Trends: Implications for Cost-Benefit Analysis of Mitigation Investments
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗