‘Close Call’ Between JetBlue, Private Plane at Boston Airport Sparks FAA Investigation
“The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly, but began a takeoff roll instead.”
This is happening too often.
A near collision of a JetBlue plane and a private jet has sparked an FAA investigation at Boston Logan International Airport.
According to a preliminary review, the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance while JetBlue Flight 206 was preparing to land on an intersecting runway shortly before 7 p.m., the FAA confirmed.
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.
“The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly, but began a takeoff roll instead,” the FAA said. “The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.”
So the Learjet took off without any clearance.
The JetBlue plane came from Nashville, TN.
As I said, this has happened a lot lately:
FAA Launches Investigation After Near Miss Between Two Planes at JFK Airport
Another Potentially Catastrophic Near Miss at a US Airport Between FedEx and Southwest Planes
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Looking out the window used to work to prevent collisions. Perhaps we’re going back to that.
Too much emphasis on by-the-book stabilized approaches.
There used to be a video of an eastern European 737 landing right out of the turn onto final, i.e. no final at all. I used to do that with a light airplane, an exercise on getting it all together, speed, altitude and position to hit right on the numbers. That guy was looking out the window.
“As I said, this has happened a lot lately”
It’s all Pete’s fault. Somehow.
No Trumps, I’m sure his super duper plane is the cause of all of this
This is the third close call for planes on final, takeoff and taxiing this year. In minimums, the tower cleared a SWA 737 to take off while a FedEx 767 esd on final… even though no plane or tower could see each other. The 767 realized the danger and did a go around with 150 feet to spare.
” Too much emphasis on by-the-book stabilized approaches.”… you better believe there is an be glad of it. You can play that game, but I preferred nailing the base to final and motoring down in a stable approach. Yes, I have seen impressive handling of big jets but I also know they are not stick and rudder kites. Looking back even in the last two years shows that crashes on approach were not stabilized. The Pakistan crash is a good example. If you wish to debate someone… try Juan Brown a 777 driver and visit his youtube channel… “PIA #8303 Update #4 Unstable Approach Profile”
seems (to me, just a thought) lot of this happening just after new RVSM regs came into play in late 2007 or so
guess dont matter if TCAS up to date when controllers are not on the ball.
damn typo RVSM changes were 2005 not 2007.
My SIL is a pilot, this is more than scary
VIDEO: FedEx and Southwest runway incident in Austin, Texas
https://twitter.com/thefoxposts/status/1624049330037350404
Just as an FYI, that is not a real video. That is from a flight simulator playing back black box data with real (but edited time wise) voice overlay.
The systems can only absorb so much. We’ve had an aging pilot population with less available younger pilots to step in/up. Some is basic math from defense cuts; less military pilots results in less civil pilots to some measure. Some is just aging out of the older pilot cohort. Some is less training and development from airlines/air cargo carriers who used to rely on a DoD pipeline that isn’t there to same degree.
Same with ATC and ground crew to similar degrees. In many ways the airlines/air cargo became addicted to DoD pipeline of pilots. Sure an F15 pilot needed SIM times and training to transition but they already had a ton of hours and training. Some guy from XYZ aviation Academy doesn’t have nearly the same level of experience or training.
This is happening across every field to an extent. Boomers have been retiring for decades. The much smaller Gen X leading edge is in their late 50s. The oldest of Gen X turn 58 this year. Add in Covid early retirement and career shifts away from the jab mandate. It reminds me of the early chapters of Atlas Shrugged where highly productive people begin leaving but the system still holds b/c those remaining can shoulder the load. Sooner or later attrition reaches a point where those remaining can’t shoulder any increased burden. That’s when things come apart as the departures become widespread b/c there is zero incentive to even try. We aren’t there yet but getting closer.
Oh and the confidence continues… United is reserving half of its pilot recruitment to women and POC only. Now, I am happy with any qualified crew mix. And for the cherry on top British Airways flight crews can dress in any uniform option… any…..lipstick and all. Sweet.
The US crippled the pilot population by requiring 1500 hours for a first officer, which is more hours than most people are willing to pay to acquire. Europe is still around 250 hours.
From a bad interpretation of a Buffalo NY crash, that it was pilot inexperience. Actually it was that they had just watched a NASA video on tailplane stalls in icing and thought that was what they had.
Yes. I don’t know a lot about it, but I personally know three people who went through aviation school and then chose a non-pilot career path while citing the “hours” as a reason.
250 to 1,500 seems a huge difference. What is the reason for that?
If you want to be a captain and make the real money, over 300,000 there are tons of jobs out there, but you have to be willing to get paid substantially less
The big carriers make all
Pilots come in as first officers and the pay is pretty low the first and second year, recently, it was 70,000 but I believe it’s been uped to 90,000, still pretty low for a family man with one working and one taking care of the kids, cause pilots need wifes that don’t work or can work from home for many years as the kids get older secondary to their schedules, 4 on and 5-6 off .
The 250 hr requirement was a knee jerk political reaction to the aforementioned Buffalo crash. Completely stupid. At 250 hrs most career oriented aviators are fresh from getting IFR rating and at the top of their game. Making them fly another 1000+ hrs so they can be FO qualified is nuts.
Oops I meant the 1500 hr requirement in above post.
At 250 hours there is no way you have any idea what’s going on. That’s like 4 months of flying for an average commercial pilot. If you haven’t experienced at least a years worth – experiencing the full gamut of weather: snow, ice, thunder storms, hot cold – you are not on the top of your game.
Wait, what?
You think a 250 hour pilot who just passed the check ride is a better flier than the 1250 hour pilot? Sure, he can spout the answers, but experience counts.
True the 1,500 hour requirement doesn’t make sense as the FO is basically an understudy to the Captain.
Pilots. Bith planes type certification require a crew of two
something about this doesn’t sound right–why would the lear guy repeat-back instructions and then proceed with a run?–doesn’t make sense–maybe he thought he could be gone before inbound arrived?–lears run like a bat out of hell and outclimb practically anything in their class–haven’t flown/flown in a 60 but had an uncle who had a 24–throttle-up and hold on–nearly 4,000fpm on the way up–and aerobatic–lordy, maneuverable in the extreme–still, don’t believe the lear guy just decided to play acey-deucey
Actually really not, I’ve done it, usually you have something you are focused on, he taking off and for whatever reason, your mind overrides what your mouth is saying…
The point above about “pilots” is important here. It is seldom – in a crewed aircraft – the pilot flying who is talking on the radios. If the Pilot is handling the actual TO, the co-pilot is reading back the radio call. It’s very possible the pilot didn’t quite hear the call and started his TO roll while the co-pilot was still reading back the clearance – precisely.
This is why CRM (Cockpit Resource Management) was introduced 30+ years ago. To make sure everyone is trained in the concept that anyone can call off the takeoff, tell the pilot he’s a dummy, etc. It will be interesting to see if the incident report has a recording of the co-pilot asking the pilot, “WTF do you think you’re doing?! He cleared us to hold! Abort, abort, abort!” Or, if he just meekly posed it as, “Wait, didn’t they say hold? Is this a good idea?”
kudos to the jetblue guy–calm in the clutch–listened to the link below and a couple of others–according to “faa recording” lear guys DID acknowledge / read back LUAW from atc–whether lear guys misunderstood / ignored am not sure–however, from various recordings appears atc DID NOT issue clearance to lear—always thought pilot(s) MUST acknowledge clearance and then follow-on with “lear 38 rolling 4L” or such
Logan is a a scary airport. Security is a joke and the Massholes running it screw up left and right. My daughter lives an hour north of Boston in New Hampshire. We have switched from flying into Logan and opted to fly into Manchester for $150 more. It is not as covenant but we do not have to deal with Massholes.
VASAviation had this yesterday:
https://youtu.be/KFruSXNASrY
Just listened to the communications between ATC, JetBlue, and the Learjet. Learjet pilot never acknowledged the hold short order from ATC and just crossed the landing runway 4R (there was another jet landing on 4L at about the same time) while beginning his (non-approved) takeoff roll. I’m quite certain the Learjet pilot has some explaining to do.
So, the reporting is inaccurate?
Huh, never would have seen that coming….
Diversity hiring is scaring me. Much like having our country under the control of diversity hires. Only my life is at risk with airlines going woke! Are there any airlines not going woke?
Notice there are no details of the Lear jet pilot! So now what? An INVESTIGATION and then what?? Maybe they need PEOPLE with FLAGS to stand in front of planes??? “Hey, Joe, that guy has a “STOP” sign so I guess we just have to sit here until he turns it around to say “GO”???? Surely works well with those people at construction sites!
IIRC, there have been 3 near-misses lately, and two of them were due to ATC errors. This one was pilot error, but it was a non-commercial pilot. In all three cases, a commercial pilot pulled off a save, albeit with maneuvers airliners weren’t intended to do. Keep this up, and eventually a pilot will tear an airliner apart trying to avoid a crash after the control tower puts two planes on a collision course.
Boy, that TRANS SEC is doing a bang up job….literally. Geez. Not flying until they get the adults back in charge.