Once upon a time about ten years ago NewMexiKen attended a conference in Memphis, Tennessee. Great city — Graceland, Sun Studio, Peabody ducks, the historic Lorraine Motel, B.B. King’s.
And FedEx. The FedEx distribution center is there. Every evening FedEx planes from all over fly into Memphis, the packages are sorted, and by early morning the planes head out with their new load.
Because of crowding at the conference hotel, I stayed at Memphis Airport. The first night I was awakened about 2AM by the sounds of jets taking off. I looked out the window to see FedEx aircraft taxiing. Scores of planes, one right behind another, so close to the hotel I could see the pilots in the cockpit. The commotion kept me awake for a couple of hours. The second night I was so exhausted I slept through it. The third and final night I actually went outside and watched. Take-offs less than a minute apart for more than two hours. Incredible.
Here’s a fun video of FAA radar showing FedEx planes landing at Memphis, trying to avoid a thunderstorm.
In 1986 I worked for a couple of months on the construction of FedEx’s Newark, NJ hub. There was a large lunch room with windows overlooking one of the main runways and the planes would take off and land, take off and land, take off and land about one per minute.
It was fascinationg to watch, especially since it was not long after Reagan busted PATCO, the air traffic controllers union.
One day FedEx brass paid a visit to their new center. They arrived in a small jet. They had taken their tour and were back aboard the jet for their takeoff. The were moving in the queue awaiting their turn.
A huge jet would land and before they were even turning off the runway another jet was taxiing on for its takeoff less than a minute later. Then as it lifted off another would come in for a landing. It was amazing to see the precision of this traffic.
When the Fedex jet reached the head of the line it taxxied out onto the runway. The problem was that at that very instant a large airliner was coming in for its landing.
At what must surely have been about the last possible second the jet coming down roared with everything it had and banked sharply out over the harbor and climbed sharply out over Manhattan, leaving a massive trail of black smoke behind.
We imagined the conversation that must have been taking place between the tower and both cockpits. There was no way to know who made the error, but I bet it wasn’t the approaching airliner’s pilot. It was several minutes before they could make a large circle over the greater New York City area and try again. The FedEx jet was by then long gone. Perhaps an air traffic controller was as well.
I saw nothing on the evening news about it but I imagine they were only a few seconds from being the story of the day Internationally.