The Friedman Files

On Wednesday’s edition of NBC5 News at 10, we aired a story showing how American Airlines has been towing planes across runways, in the dark, without turning on any of the planes’ lights.   Air traffic controllers tell us that’s been creating a potentially dangerous situation on runways at DFW.  Airport officials at DFW have been asking the airline to light the planes for several months.  You can see our complete story here : 

http://www.nbc5i.com/travelgetaways/16267619/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

After the story aired, and the Star-Telegram blogged about it this morning, a spokesman for the airline sent an e-mail a to the Star-Telegram calling our story “misleading’. 

Actually, it’s his response that’s misleading.

He claims we “mislinked” two issues: the fact that the planes have not been lit while being towed at night – and the fact that there was a recent daytime incident where a plane was towed into the path of another plane coming in for landing. 

In our story we made it clear that, “if the incident had happened at night” air traffic controllers tell us the pilot may not have seen the other plane until it was too late.  In other words, the daytime incident highlights the importance – in the eyes of the controllers - of lighting the planes so they can be seen if the same thing were to happen at night.

After that daytime incident in April, DFW airport asked the airline to park the tugs while the FAA investigates.  So, the airline is not using them at DFW right now – but they are using them at other airports across the country.  We also learned that, for months, DFW airport has been asking the airline to light the planes during night time towing.  The airline has said that is working with the airport and the FAA to find a way to light the planes at night.   American did not want to run the lights because that would require running the plane’s engines or the back up generators to power the lights – and that would burn fuel. 

Incidentally, the spokesman who wrote the note to the Star-Telegram was offered an opportunity to appear in our story before it aired but declined.  To see his note to the paper go to:

http://startelegram.typepad.com/sky_talk/

In his blog, Dallas/Ft. Worth TV critic Ed Bark describes our story as a, “balanced account”:

http://www.unclebarky.com/dfw_files/7f224ef10a23684615e47172f5752559-687.html