US FAA and NTSB investigate new airline runway incident

David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. aviation authorities said late Monday they were investigating a new incident involving two planes allowed to use the same runway, forcing one of them to refuse a landing and resurrecting safety issues.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating a series of recent runway intrusions that have attracted nationwide attention.

During the February 16 incident, an air traffic controller cleared an Air Canada Rouge Airbus A321 to take off at Florida’s Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport after American Airlines’ Boeing 737 was cleared to land on the same runway.

The FAA said the flight crew of American Airlines stopped landing after the controller said the Air Canada plane was taking off.

The planes were about 3,100 feet (945 meters) apart when the American Airlines plane began its climb, according to the FAA.

Air Canada and American Airlines did not immediately comment on the situation.

The FAA will hold a safety summit on March 15 and is forming a panel of experts to review airline safety following several recent emergencies.

Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, in a “call to action” memo last month, said the safety review team would “look into the structure, culture, processes, systems, and integration of U.S. aerospace system security efforts.” Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Last week, the NTSB and FAA said they were investigating a Feb. 27 runway invasion at Boston’s Logan Airport that occurred when a Learjet 60 began its takeoff roll as a JetBlue plane prepared to land on an intersecting runway.

The FAA said the Learjet pilot took off without permission as the JetBlue aircraft was preparing to land. The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and began climbing as the Learjet was crossing the intersection.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said last month that a FedEx cargo plane and a Southwest Airlines plane that nearly collided on Feb. 4 in Austin, Texas “probably were less than 100 feet vertically apart.”

The FedEx plane was scheduled to land on a runway that was also cleared for Southwest Airlines. Homendy said that this could lead to a “terrible tragedy”.

In January, a Delta Air Lines plane refused to take off at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after air traffic controllers noticed a London-bound American Airlines wide-body jet had crossed a nearby taxiway without clearance, the NTSB reported. This incident is also under investigation.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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