The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a close call between two commercial flights at Boston Logan International Airport on Saturday, which forced a Delta Air Lines jet to abort its landing attempt.
According to Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer at Boeing, the Delta aircraft came within roughly 300 feet (90 metres) of an American Airlines plane as it was preparing to land. Curtis, who co-produces a podcast on flight safety issues, made the estimate using flight tracking website Flightradar24.
The incident involved Delta flight 2351 from Dallas, which had 129 passengers and six crew members on board. The airline said the crew coordinated with air traffic control to perform a go-around, and the plane landed safely and deplaned normally.
Curtis described the incident as significant, particularly because it involved two professional airline crews. He noted that federal aviation officials have been concerned about runway incursions and would scrutinise the close call closely.
The near miss comes ahead of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, which will examine runway incursions and near-misses at US airports. The hearing will consider ways to strengthen safety across the national airspace system. The FAA noted that go-arounds are safe, routine procedures performed at the discretion of pilots or air traffic controllers.
