ASRS Reports

The truck continued to hold short all the way until our landing. After my student touched down and was taking out flaps and applying full power (we had rolled about halfway down the runway at this point), the black pickup truck drove across the runway right in front of us.

The new runway at Marion County Airport (X35) in Dunnellon, Florida, is likely to result in mid-air collisions.

After reviewing the regulations I now realize that I did not follow the proper protocol. I learned that as PIC I should not have let anyone influence my decision to fly or not to fly no matter what implications it may have.

I asked my student “Did I miss anything? Did you hear him say he was taking off, departing, on the roll, or on the go for Runway 21?” My student didn’t hear anything of the sort either.

ATC asked the student pilot if he had the airport in sight, because after the incident he was flying away from the airport on the departure leg. I do not think the Tower Controller ever realized the mistake nor was the light aircraft pilot instructed to call the Tower. I believe Tower may have been “behind the plane.”

I believe the cause of this near mid air collision was the Tower Controller’s lack of situational awareness. I do not believe he knew we were both on the downwind until he made a mistake. There were two planes in the pattern and a small plane flying a practice approach inbound, as well as a jet inbound, which I believe led to task saturation for the controller and the loss of situational awareness.

This is a flight I have made multiple times and before the flight I updated my sectional chart and checked the airport NOTAMs before departure. At no point in that process did I realize a tower had been added to this airport.

Later in the day we found that our radio silence had rattled nerves and caused problems for the flight school. We spoke to the flight school manager and offered our apologies for causing a disruption.

Other planes begin yelling for me to go around.