Repeated instances have occurred where airliners nearly collided on airport runways or tarmacs.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have begun investigations into a close call at the Florida airport last month when an Air Canada flight was cleared for takeoff on the same runway that an American Airlines flight was cleared to land.
The FAA stated the two jet airliners were about 3,000 feet apart when the American pilot discontinued the landing and “began its climb-out.” An air traffic controller had advised the crew that Air Canada was departing, which precipitated the American Airlines’ response.
Other airport incidents have been reported recently, including one on February 27 when a private charter jet came close to colliding with a Jet Blue craft at Boston’s Logan Airport, and a near crash between two passenger planes occurred in mid-January in New York at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
A go-around had to be initiated in aborting a landing at the airport in Burbank, California, when it became clear that the runway already had an aircraft on it. And, in Austin, Texas, a Southwest passenger jet and a FedEx cargo plane came within 100 feet of colliding on the same runway. In that case, it was a pilot, not air traffic control, who averted the disaster. And, in Honolulu in January, a United Airlines 777 jet crossed a runway while a smaller cargo plane was landing.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For FAA and NTSB officials as they look into the causes of the close calls.
- For Secretary Buttigieg as he heads the Department of Transportation.
- For air traffic controllers around the nation as they endeavor to provide safe direction to pilots as they take off, land, and taxi.
Sources: The Hill, CNN
