JetBlue flight forced to abort landing in close call at Logan Airport
A JetBlue flight nearly collided with a private plane at Boston Logan International Airport on Monday night in yet another close call, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
JetBlue flight 206 was attempting to land just before 7 p.m. ET when a Learjet operated by charter company HopAJet crossed onto the runway and took off without clearance, according to preliminary information gathered by the FAA.
"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 FAA said in a statement Tuesday. "The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead."
Audio from the air traffic control tower appeared to confirm that the Learjet was told to stop short of the intersecting runway.
The JetBlue flight "took evasive action and initiated a climb-out" the FAA said, adding that it would "determine the closest proximity between the two aircraft" in its investigation of the incident.
According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, the JetBlue plane was only about 100 feet off the ground before it began to climb again. The flight then circled around and landed safely about 12 minutes later, FlightAware showed. Data from Flightradar24, another flight-tracking company, showed that the closest the two planes came was within about 565 feet of each other.
It was the latest in a string of aviation close calls this year.
Earlier in February, a FedEx cargo plane nearly collided with a Southwest passenger jet as the two planes attempted to land and take off from the same runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The two planes came within 100 feet of each other.
The FAA has called for a safety summit in March to review these recent incidents.
— Lilia Luciano contributed reporting.