Beanbag
7th Oct 2005, 13:35
From Airwise News:
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October 7, 2005
US aviation authorities are investigating a runway scare at Boston's Logan Airport involving an American Airlines jet that abruptly aborted take-off this week to avoid another aircraft, officials said on Thursday.
Nobody was injured in Tuesday's incident but it was the 16th of its kind at the airport since October 2004, raising concern about safety at one of the nation's busiest airfields that handles 420,000 departures and arrivals a year.
The FAA said the incident occurred when a regional jet with 18 people on board landed and crossed a runway on which an American Airlines MD-82 carrying 131 people had begun its take-off run.
The regional jet operated by American Eagle, a unit of American Airlines, had been instructed by a tower controller to stay at a runway after landing and to remain on the same radio frequency, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA.
But without the tower's approval, the pilot switched to ground control, which gave conflicting instructions, telling the plane to cross the runway on which the American Airlines aircraft was starting to take off, Peters added.
Spotting the regional jet, the tower controller tried to call its crew, but they had already switched to a different radio frequency. Unable to reach them, he told the American Airlines pilots to abort take-off.
The aircraft came within 1,700 ft of each other, Peters said. The Boston Globe newspaper, however, on Thursday cited a source close to the investigation saying the planes were less than 1,000 ft apart.
"It's being investigated as an operational error, meaning a mistake was made by a controller, and also as a pilot deviation," Peters said. Pilots must have approval from the tower controller before switching radio frequencies, he said.
The FAA is sending a team familiar with Logan to evaluate its operations and determine what could be done to avoid similar incursions.
In August, the aviation watchdog and MassPort, which operates Logan, said it would curb runway incursions after a similar incident involving a FedEx cargo jet and a JetBlue flight.
(Reuters)
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October 7, 2005
US aviation authorities are investigating a runway scare at Boston's Logan Airport involving an American Airlines jet that abruptly aborted take-off this week to avoid another aircraft, officials said on Thursday.
Nobody was injured in Tuesday's incident but it was the 16th of its kind at the airport since October 2004, raising concern about safety at one of the nation's busiest airfields that handles 420,000 departures and arrivals a year.
The FAA said the incident occurred when a regional jet with 18 people on board landed and crossed a runway on which an American Airlines MD-82 carrying 131 people had begun its take-off run.
The regional jet operated by American Eagle, a unit of American Airlines, had been instructed by a tower controller to stay at a runway after landing and to remain on the same radio frequency, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA.
But without the tower's approval, the pilot switched to ground control, which gave conflicting instructions, telling the plane to cross the runway on which the American Airlines aircraft was starting to take off, Peters added.
Spotting the regional jet, the tower controller tried to call its crew, but they had already switched to a different radio frequency. Unable to reach them, he told the American Airlines pilots to abort take-off.
The aircraft came within 1,700 ft of each other, Peters said. The Boston Globe newspaper, however, on Thursday cited a source close to the investigation saying the planes were less than 1,000 ft apart.
"It's being investigated as an operational error, meaning a mistake was made by a controller, and also as a pilot deviation," Peters said. Pilots must have approval from the tower controller before switching radio frequencies, he said.
The FAA is sending a team familiar with Logan to evaluate its operations and determine what could be done to avoid similar incursions.
In August, the aviation watchdog and MassPort, which operates Logan, said it would curb runway incursions after a similar incident involving a FedEx cargo jet and a JetBlue flight.
(Reuters)