American Eagle Embraer E170 Crew That Landed On The Wrong Runway At Chicago O’Hare Airport Had ILS Autotuning Issues

The National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB) has published its preliminary report about an incident involving an American Eagle Embraer E170, operated by Envoy Air, which landed on the wrong runway in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, on September 25, 2024.

Changing runway expectations

According to the NTSB, before the Envoy Air pilots departed Norfolk International Airport (ORF) for Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), they had planned to land on runway 27R using an instrument landing system (ILS) approach.

Their assumption was made after looking at the weather conditions, with the flight crew expecting to use the WATSON4 area navigation (RNAV) arrival route.

However, before it had begun descending at O’Hare International, the automatic terminal information service (ATIS) indicated that the pilots should expect to land on runway 9L.

Air traffic control (ATC) changed their arrival route to ESSPO5, which was programmed into the flight management computers (FMC) and briefed. The NTSB pointed out that the flight crew discussed which runway they should expect, concluding that it was likely runway 10R.

Switching to a visual approach due to autotune issues

After the pilots spoke to ATC, the controller assigned the Envoy Air E170, operating a flight on behalf of American Airlines‘ regional subsidiary, to land on runway 10C.

The captain, who also acted as the pilot monitoring (PM), briefed the approach and put it into the FMC with an ILS approach to runway 10C to back up the planned visual approach.

“However, they were not receiving the ILS identifier. The captain attempted to troubleshoot why the localizer frequency would not autotune by reloading the approach in the FMC and manually tuning the frequency.”

As a result, the pilots proceeded to conclude the approach visually, with the PM contacting ATC and saying that the aircraft was on a visual approach to runway 10C and that the E170 was cleared to land on that runway.

The NTSB pointed out that the Envoy Air regional jet aligned and landed on runway 10L at 15:26 local time (UTC -5), taxiing to the gate without further incident. None of the 64 passengers or four crew members were injured during the event.

Flightradar24 data showed that the E170, registered as N772MR, had operated its third flight of the day. It left the Chicagoan airport for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), landing in Wichita, Kansas, at 18:31 local time (UTC -5), which was its last flight on September 25, following the incident flight in Chicago.

Failing to follow communication procedures

After it had reviewed ATC communications, the NTSB detailed that after the Envoy Air pilots checked in with local controllers, ATC told them to expect runway 10C. Six minutes later, the flight was instructed to turn to a 060° heading and intercept the 10C localizer.

The investigators pointed out that initially, the flight crew said to turn right to heading 090° to intercept the runway’s localizer, with the controller immediately correcting the pilots, who proceeded to read back the instruction correctly.

“About 30 seconds later ENY3936 was instructed to maintain 170 knots to RAYYY and contact the tower and the instructions were read back correctly. Subsequently, ENY3936 checked in with ORD air traffic control tower on the visual approach to 10C and was cleared to land.”

The NTSB stated that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandatory occurrence report (MOR) showed that ATC noticed the runway misalignment and coordinated with the controller responsible for runway 10L to allow the Envoy Air E170 to land on the runway since there were no traffic conflicts.

ATC never informed the pilots about the runway alignment error, while the flight crew never informed local controllers about their inability to tune the localizer of the ILS, the NTSB highlighted, which was a violation of an FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) policy section.

The NTSB quoted the policy section, which said that when a controller notices that an aircraft is not aligned with the correct runway, they should inform the pilot and issue control instructions/clearances.

Examples included instructing a go-around when aircraft are aligned with the wrong runway or taxiway or clearing them to land despite the misalignment.

Alternatively, controllers should verify whether the pilots are aligned with the correct runway if time permits. The NTSB concluded its preliminary report by saying that it has continued its investigation.