JetBlue flight landed at Boston’s Logan International Airport in a terrifying near miss involving a private jet that took off without permission
- The JetBlue flight that landed at Boston’s airport missed the private jet by just a few hundred feet, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
- The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet later blamed the mistake on a ‘stuffy nose’
- A photo from the JetBlue cockpit shows how perilously close it came to disaster
A JetBlue flight landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport nearly collided with a private jet that was taking off without permission, the National Transportation Safety Board has revealed.
The incident, on Feb. 27, was captured in a chilling photo from the cockpit of the JetBlue flight, which shows the LearJet plane blocking the runway as it landed.
Only the JetBlue Flight 206 pilot’s quick thinking could have avoided a collision, researchers said. The pilot performed a ‘climb-out’ maneuver to narrowly avoid the other aircraft.
The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet – flying for Hop-A-Jet, a Florida private charter company – had been instructed to line up and read the air traffic controller’s instructions. But the pilot then “began the takeoff roll instead.”
He later told investigators, “I can’t understand what happened to me during the eviction, the only thing that comes to my mind is that the cold temperature in Boston affected me, I wasn’t feeling quite well and had a stuffy nose.” My apologies.’
The incident, on Feb. 27, was captured in a chilling photo from the cockpit of the JetBlue flight, showing the LearJet plane blocking the runway as it landed
Only the JetBlue Flight 206 pilot’s quick thinking could have avoided a collision, researchers said. The pilot performed a ‘climb out’ maneuver to narrowly avoid the other aircraft (circled)
He only learned of the near miss after he arrived at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The private jet crew were notified ‘they had taken off without clearance and passed an aircraft cleared to land on runway 04 to perform a go-around approximately 400′ above them.’
The report on the incident said: ‘The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause(s) of this incident are: Hop-a-Jet flight crew taking off without clearance for takeoff, resulting in a conflict with a JetBlue flight cleared to land on an intersecting runway.”
The JetBlue plane, an Embraer 190, was only 30 feet above the ground and approaching the intersecting runway when the two planes came closest to each other.
The terrifying incident follows a string of other near misses at US airports this year, prompting experts to warn that the industry faces “the biggest disaster in its history” if the trend is not reversed.
The JetBlue plane, an Embraer 190 as pictured, made landfall at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Feb. 27 when it almost plowed into a private jet
The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet — an aircraft similar to the one pictured — told investigators: “I can’t understand what happened to me during clearance, the only thing that comes to mind is that the cold temperature in Boston may have affected on I was not feeling well and had a stuffy nose. My apologies’
In February, a Boeing 767 FedEx cargo plane landing at Austin-Bergstrom International came within 100 feet of a Southwest Airlines 737 plane taking off from the same runway.
Analysts say only the FedEx pilot’s quick thinking prevented a collision.
The incident follows a similar near miss at John F. Kennedy International in New York City on Friday, Jan. 13, when a Delta flight was forced to perform an emergency stop during takeoff while an American Airlines plane was crossing the same runway.
Aviation expert and pilot Juan Browne said: ‘Incidents like this are increasing at an alarming rate.
“There is a huge turnover in the industry, not only among pilots, but also among air traffic controllers, mechanics, mechanics, rampers. And with the current state of hiring practices and training and the relentless effort to get things done faster, cheaper and more efficiently, we are just one phone call away from the biggest aviation disaster in history.”
In both the JFK and Austin-Bergstrom incidents, experts have said directions from air traffic controllers appear to have been a problem.
Kit Darby, an aviation consultant and former United Airlines pilot, told DailyMail.com that he believes safety protocols to prevent near misses are enough, but added, “It’s a very big, very complicated system that relies on people , and people make mistakes. ‘