Another commercial airliner was almost involved in a collision, which is reportedly the fourth near miss that has happened since December, according to a report from the Associated Press. The AP went on to cite information from the Federal Aviation Administration, issued a report that said a JetBlue pilot was forced to take “evasive action” on Monday while trying to land at Boston’s Logan International Airport as another plane crossed an intersecting runway.
” The pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance around 7 p.m. as the JetBlue flight was preparing to land, the outlet said, citing the FAA’s preliminary review,” TheBlaze reported. “Flight data tracking service Flightradar24 said Tuesday the two airliners were about 530 feet apart, the AP reported, citing the service’s preliminary analysis. The outlet added that the FAA also is investigating how far apart the two aircraft were.”
the report then added, “The AP said an air traffic controller told the Learjet pilot to line up and wait on one runway while the JetBlue flight landed on another runway, according to an FAA statement.”
“The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead,” the FAA went on to say, according to the outlet. “The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.”
The AP then revealed that the FAA did not provide any further details about the incident.
The report then noted there have been several other near misses since December including ones at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York back in January, one in Austin, Texas in February, and a third that happened off the coast of Hawaii in December.
JetBlue Airways gave a statement saying they are cooperating with investigators in regard to the near miss at Logan.
“On Monday, February 27, JetBlue flight 206 landed safely in Boston after our pilots were instructed to perform a go-around by air traffic controllers,” the airline revealed in a statement, according to the AP. “Safety is JetBlue’s first priority and our crews are trained to react to situations like this.”
One individual reacted to the near misses in the comment section of an article on Yahoo News, saying,“Sure seems like since we stopped hiring people who were best qualified for the positions and instead hired people who check the intersectional boxes, a lot of close calls have arisen.”
“I think disregarding ATC instructions should be reason to lose your pilots license. Legal charges should also be filed for endangering the public,” another commenter stated. “Time to get tough on this rash of near misses.”
While there are thousands of flights that take off and land on a daily basis, these incursions and close calls are happening way too frequently as of late,” another commenter went on to write. “I’ve seen cases where ATC cuts it too close with clearances and other cases where pilots read back line up a wait, but cross the runway regardless. Something needs to change before one of these close calls turns tragic.”
“This is becoming common. Does everyone realize that equity has found its way into air traffic controllers and pilots?” another commenter pointed out. “I’m not sure I’ll be flying the equity skies anytime soon.”