BOSTON — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a “close call” between JetBlue and Learjet flights at Boston’s Logan Airport that forced one pilot to take “evasive action” to avoid a potential collision.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance while JetBlue Flight 206 was preparing to land on an intersecting runway around 7 p.m. Monday, according to an FAA spokesperson.
Passengers on that JetBlue flight from Nashville to Boston were pretty shaken up after such a close call.
“We’re looking at the ground we’re ready to land, you get that feeling, yay we’re landing and all of a sudden we went right back up,” said Cindy Neshe, a passenger on the JetBlue flight.
The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft had to react quickly to avoid the Learjet plane, investigators said. The FAA noted that the Learjet was operated by Hop-A-Jet, a private charter company.
In a statement, the spokesperson said, “An air traffic controller instructed the pilot of the Learjet to line up and wait on Runway 9 while the JetBlue Embraer 190 landed on Runway 4-Right, which intersects Runway 9. The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead. The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.”
Investigators are now working to determine exactly how close the aircrafts came to colliding with each other.
“These are precursors you want to get on top of right away in this industry,” said Tom Kinton, president of Kinton Aviation Consulting. “One’s too many – when you start to have a series of them there’s something going on, something’s getting sloppy in the system, and you need to get a hold of it quickly and correct it.”
Kinton says there’s been a few close calls like this recently across the country, so now a team with the FAA will investigate and see how close those planes actually got.
“If they have to make changes, procedural changes, retrain pilots, suspend or pull a pilot license, if necessary, there’s various avenues the FAA can go once the investigation is done,” said Kinton.
There were no additional details immediately available.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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