Topline
Two planes clipped each other while moving at low speed on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport Monday morning, just one week after a plane taking off from Boston nearly collided with a plane touching down, as well as several other “close calls” that have prompted federal investigations.
Two planes clipped each other on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport, following a … [+]
Key Facts
The wing of a United Airlines plane departing for Newark, New Jersey, made contact with another United Airlines plane on its way to Denver just after 9 a.m., while the former was being towed by United staff near the gate of the terminal.
United Airlines confirmed to Forbes that passengers exited the two planes “normally” after the incident, and the airline is working to bring passengers to their destinations on different aircraft.
There were no injuries reported, Jennifer Mehigan, director of communications for the Massachusetts Port Authority told Forbes, but the crash follows a string of potentially devastating close calls at several airports around the country.
Last week, a Learjet pilot took off from Logan “without clearance” from air traffic control officials while a JetBlue flight was about to land on an intersecting runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, prompting the JetBlue flight to abruptly pull up in a so-called climb-out maneuver to avoid a collision.
Four other recent close-calls are also under investigation, including near-misses in Austin, Honolulu, New York City and Burbank, California.
While the FAA has launched an internal agency review, it has not provided an explanation for the apparent uptick in close calls on runways.
One theory is that air travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and that many of those flights are being operated by pilots new to the industry, Flight Safety Foundation CEO Hassan Shahidi told CBS News.
Key Background
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the near-miss on the runway at Boston Logan, which caused no injuries or damage. It is also investigating an incident in January at New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport, when an American Airlines flight crossed the runway where a Delta flight was taking off, coming within 1,000 feet of colliding. Two planes avoided a near collision at Austin Bergstrom Airport in January, when a FedEx cargo plane pilot quickly climbed out while preparing to land as a Southwest Airlines flight was preparing to take off (both pilots received clearance). A United Airlines jet that improperly crossed a runway at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye Airport in January also had a close-call with a single-engine cargo plane that was landing, while two planes nearly collided on a runway at Bob Hope Burbank Airport late last month.
Big Number
100. That’s how many feet the Learjet and JetBlue came to hitting each other on the runway in Boston last week, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Tangent
The string of close calls prompted acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen to order a review of the agency itself last month, saying the recent events “remind us that we must not become complacent.” That review will also look into a nationwide ground stop caused by an internal agency system outage that delayed more than 4,000 flights in January. Nolen announced the FAA will hold a summit this month to “examine which mitigations are working and why others appear to be not as effective as they once were.”
Further Reading
Planes clip each other at Logan Airport, one week after close call on runway (Boston Globe)
FAA to conduct sweeping safety review after multiple incidents (CNN)
Close call, turbulent flight add to aviation safety concerns (Associated Press)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/06/two-planes-clip-at-boston-logan-following-multiple-close-calls-around-the-country/