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A Mesa Airlines flight was forced to abort its landing at the last minute this week as it approached Hollywood Burbank Airport in the latest crash involving US planes.
Flight number CRJ900 was forced to start climbing again about a mile from the airport, after a SkyWest plane was given the green light to take off at the same time, and the close call came around 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The Mesa Airlines jet pilot successfully aborted the landing just minutes from the runway, while air traffic control allowed the SkyWest E175 aircraft to take off unhindered.
Last week’s narrow escape was the latest in a series of near-disasters at major US airports in recent months, including one last month in which two Alaska Airlines planes nearly wrecked their flights. stories on the track due to a software glitch.
Mesa Airlines CRJ900 came within minutes of colliding with another plane this week in the latest in a series of close calls
Air traffic control allowed a SkyWest plane to take off unhindered after the crash
The near disaster occurred at Hollywood Burbank Airport, pictured, around 7 p.m. Wednesday night.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials are currently investigating the incident at Hollywood Burbank Airport.
The close shave joins a growing list of conspicuous fiascoes for the nation’s aviation industry, which has led to an impending federal review of the nation’s aerospace system.
According to the FAA, the number of “runway incursions” reached 1,633 last year.
A runway incursion is any time an aircraft, vehicle or person is improperly in a protected area while an aircraft is taking off or landing.
The terrifying number of close calls has risen from 1,397 in 2012, while only 987 incidents were reported in 2002.
In the most alarming near miss in recent memory, two Alaska Airlines planes nearly collided on takeoff due to a technical glitch that told pilots their planes were 20,000 pounds lighter than they actually were.
The planes took off six minutes apart on January 26.
While they did not make physical contact with each other, the problem was serious enough that Alaska Airlines initiated a nationwide detention of all aircraft immediately afterward, according to the seattle times.
The pilot of the first flight, who was headed to Kona, Hawaii, decided to take the plane back to the airport due to the near disaster.
This was quickly followed by the second, which was also returned to Alaska as the pilots breathed a sigh of relief.
That morning, the system used to determine liftoff metrics, called DynamicSource, underwent a software update that caused an error.
The flaw meant pilots believed the planes were 20,000 to 30,000 pounds lighter than they actually were.
Just weeks earlier, a separate flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport nearly saw a similar accident, as a Delta plane nearly crashed head-on into the side of an American Airlines plane that crossed onto its runway.
The Boeing 737 was already traveling at 115 mph when an air traffic controller noticed the impending disaster.
Last month, a Delta flight nearly collided with an American Airlines plane when their paths crossed, in one of the latest iterations of close calls at US airports.
A United Airlines flight from Hawaii to San Francisco plummeted mid-air and came to just 775 feet of the Pacific Ocean in a terrifying incident in December 2022.
The Delta pilot was forced to abruptly apply the brake, traveling another 661 feet before coming to a complete stop with just 1,000 feet to spare before the plane collided with the American Airlines Boeing 777.
Even though the massive planes nearly collided, the Delta pilot was later heard on cockpit audio recordings casually saying that he’ll simply have to make a few phone calls about the near-fatal crash.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to go somewhere, run through a couple of checklists and probably make some phone calls for Delta 1943,” the pilot says calmly, adding that he thinks the crew will head back to the gate.
Another terrifying near miss almost occurred in late 2022, when a United Airlines flight came within feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean.
The plane was en route to San Francisco from Hawaii when it ran into a heavy storm.
He proceeded to go into a ‘dramatic, nose down’ dive for about eight to 10 seconds, creating mass chaos in the cockpit.
The ordeal was recalled by a passenger, who said CNN that being on the plane was like ‘the top of a roller coaster’ before the terrifying plunge, which came less than 775 feet from hitting the ocean.
The recent spate of near misses is a chilling reminder of the infamous Tenerife airport disaster of 1977.
583 people lost their lives in the tragedy, in which two Boeing 747 passenger planes collided on the runway.
Both flights had been redirected to the airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife that day after members of the Movement for the Independence of the Canary Islands blew up a bomb at the Gran Canaria Airport.
The congestion led to a litany of parked planes blocking the only taxiway, forcing every plane out onto the runway. As KLM Flight 4805 began its takeoff, Pan-Am Flight 1736 was still on the runway.
The impact and resulting fire killed everyone on board the KLM flight and most of the occupants of the Pan-Am flight, leaving just 61 survivors in the front of the aircraft, making it the deadliest aviation accident of the history.