CNN
—
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating yet one more shut name between industrial airliners, this time at Reagan Nationwide Airport close to Washington, DC – the seventh for the reason that begin of this 12 months.
On March 7, Republic Airways Flight 4736 crossed a runway, with out clearance, that United Airways Flight 2003 was utilizing for takeoff, in accordance with a preliminary assessment, the FAA mentioned. The United pilot had simply been cleared for takeoff from the runway, the company mentioned.
“An air visitors controller seen the state of affairs and instantly canceled the takeoff clearance for the United flight,” the FAA mentioned.
Recordings accessed from LiveATC.internet present air visitors controllers within the tower exclaiming, “United 2003 cancel takeoff clearance!” The crew of the United flight responded, “Aborting takeoff, United 2003.”
The pilot of the Republic flight had been cleared to cross a special runway, “however turned on the unsuitable taxiway,” the FAA mentioned.
The information of yet one more shut name comes forward of Wednesday’s FAA security summit, the primary of its type since 2009. The summit kicks off a sweeping security assessment that the company is conducting within the wake of those incursions.
Final month, a Southwest passenger jet and a FedEx cargo aircraft got here as shut as 100 ft from colliding at an Austin, Texas, airport, and it was a pilot – not air visitors controllers – who averted catastrophe, in accordance with Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board.
And in January, there was an alarming shut name just like this newest one. A Delta Air Strains flight was taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport when air visitors controllers “seen one other plane crossing the runway in entrance of the departing jetliner,” the FAA mentioned in a press release.
“S–t!” exclaimed the controller from the tower of John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport on Friday evening. “Delta 1943 cancel takeoff clearance!”
The Delta aircraft “stopped its takeoff roll roughly 1,000 ft earlier than reaching the purpose the place American Airways Flight 106, a Boeing 777, had crossed from an adjoining taxiway,” the FAA mentioned.
The NTSB – which is investigating the six different runway incursions involving industrial airliners – informed CNN it’s conscious of the most recent incident however has not but launched an investigation.