This was a busy GA airport with a control tower, two parallel runways 27R & 27L served by a Localizer and a crosswind runway 17 with a GPS approach. Even though runways 27R&L are the primary use runways, our pilot usually requests the GPS17 approach because it is a much more direct, time-saving, and lower altitude approach than the long way around to 27 which requires an initial higher altitude.

The fuel pumps are located adjacent to 17 about half way down the runway past the intersections with 27R&L. Our pilot planned to touchdown "on the numbers" so that he could easily turn off at the pumps rather than roll past and taxi back.

Just about the time our pilot touched down, he heard the tower controller literally shouting at another aircraft "Hold your position! Hold your position!" Our pilot suddenly realized that another Cessna was taking off on 27L coming from his left, and was on a collision course at the intersection! Our pilot hit the brakes - hard enough to hope to short the intersection but not so hard as to lock the brakes or blow a tire.

It was very close. The aircraft crossed in front of our pilot clearing his 182 by only 20 feet or so. After the encounter, our pilot continued on to the fuel pumps and called the tower on ground control to ask for an explanation of what had happened. The tower controller responded with a phone number to call. At the same time, our pilot hears something on the frequency referring to a blown tire and assistance in clearing the runway.

The tower supervisor was very non-committal except to point out that the other aircraft had blown a tire and had ground looped on the runway just past the intersection. It was then that our pilot realized that the pilot in the other aircraft, in response to the tower's exhortation, had apparently hit the brakes hard in an attempt to abort the takeoff, ultimately blowing a tire and ground looping only 100-200 feet past the intersection. Had the other aircraft stopped in front of our pilot’s 182 a collision would have been inevitable. A routine flight could have become a disaster just when they thought they were safely on the ground.

With no explanation of why that plane was taking off when another had been cleared to land, our pilot speculates that it was a student pilot and instructor who had probably been cleared for takeoff earlier, but failed to take off in a timely manner, and the tower operator, in turning his attention to the landing aircraft, failed to realize that the departing aircraft had not yet taken off.

Says our pilot, “People make mistakes, and so I decided not to make anything of it even though I was keenly aware that my wife and I had been put at great risk but for divine providence, and the fact that I felt in control of the situation as long as the other plane passed in front of us. I would have felt less sanguine had I realized that the other pilot was trying to stop. I thought about my other option, to go around, but I rejected it at the time because I was already in my ground roll when I realized the danger, with very little space remaining before I reached the intersection. To accelerate at that point would have increased the risk factor far too much in my mind. My decision to land "on the numbers" had probably saved our lives. It was also driven home to me that situational awareness is just as important on the ground as it is in the air, demanding close attention to tower communications with other aircraft on the part of both the other pilot and myself in this case.”

Fly safe®.