Phl tower and TRACON controllers' report of a procedure where if FOD is reported on a runway the oth...

Attributes
ACN	1194039
Time
Date	201408
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	PHL.Airport
State Reference	PA
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Supervisor / CIC
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 8
Person 2
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4.5
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Inflight Event / Encounter Bird / Animal

Narrative:

Aircraft X landed runway 35 and had a bird strike while rolling out near taxiway H; well clear of the runway 27R intersection. This closed both runway 35 and runway 27R with several aircraft on final to both runways. This caused a double go-around for runway 27R and runway 35 with two aircraft. Due to the emergency situation; the phl tower local east controller applied visual separation during the double go-around and exchanged traffic. Closest proximity of aircraft was .18 [nm] and 900 feet. It appeared from the falcon replay that the aircraft did not overfly each other. I was performing flm tower functions at the time of this incident. As per phl procedure when FOD is reported on a runway surface the runway is closed for take-off and landing as well as all intersecting runway surfaces. This specific procedure caused an unsafe operation to occur. The controller working both aircraft was busy with successive arrivals and the potential for operational errors rose drastically. The procedure of closing runway surfaces for FOD needs to be amended to allow aircraft to land on runways that FOD has not been reported. Just because FOD is reported on runway 35 north of the intersection with runway 27R should not mean that runway 27R is closed.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PHL Tower and TRACON Controllers' report of a procedure where if FOD is reported on a runway the other crossing runway is closed until the FOD is removed. In this instance two aircraft were cleared to land on converging runways and sent around causing a NMAC.

Narrative: Aircraft X landed Runway 35 and had a bird strike while rolling out near Taxiway H; well clear of the Runway 27R intersection. This closed both Runway 35 and Runway 27R with several aircraft on final to both runways. This caused a double go-around for Runway 27R and Runway 35 with two aircraft. Due to the emergency situation; the PHL Tower Local East Controller applied visual separation during the double go-around and exchanged traffic. Closest proximity of aircraft was .18 [nm] and 900 feet. It appeared from the falcon replay that the aircraft did not overfly each other. I was performing FLM Tower functions at the time of this incident. As per PHL procedure when FOD is reported on a runway surface the runway is closed for take-off and landing as well as all intersecting runway surfaces. This specific procedure caused an unsafe operation to occur. The controller working both aircraft was busy with successive arrivals and the potential for operational errors rose drastically. The procedure of closing runway surfaces for FOD needs to be amended to allow aircraft to land on runways that FOD has not been reported. Just because FOD is reported on Runway 35 north of the intersection with Runway 27R should not mean that Runway 27R is closed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Phl tower and TRACON controllers' report of a procedure where if FOD is reported on a runway the other crossing runway is closed until the FOD is removed. In this instance two aircraft were cleared to land on converging runways and sent around causing a near midair collision.