Description

On 31 December 2010, an Embraer ERJ190 being operated by Air Canada on a scheduled passenger service from Denver to Chicago was about to begin the take off roll from the full length of runway 34R at Denver in normal day visibility in accordance with ATC clearance when the flight crew observed the headlights of a vehicle approaching along the runway towards their position. The aircraft held position and advised ATC who had previously been unaware of the presence of the vehicle.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board (USA) (NTSB). It was established that the vehicle observed had been a Denver Airport Operations Vehicle being driven by the Aviation Operations Manager as the lead vehicle for the snow removal vehicle team. His vehicle had been authorised by TWR personnel to proceed southbound on taxiway F, which parallels runway 34R to the east of the runway, in preparation for snow removal operations on that runway. The runway had been mis-identified as taxiway F and entered at taxiway WC, about 1200 metres from the aircraft.

Once TWR had been advised of a vehicle on the runway, they contacted the lead vehicle of the snow removal team to advise him that a vehicle was on the runway without realising that this was the vehicle involved. The driver had failed to realise that his was the vehicle on the runway and had initially attempted to visually identify the vehicle on runway before eventually realising that his vehicle was the vehicle in question.