JetBlue flight lands at Boston’s Logan International Airport in terrifying near miss with private jet taking off without permission

A JetBlue flight landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport nearly crashed into a private jet that took off without permission, the National Transportation Safety Board has revealed.

The incident on February 27 was captured in a chilling photograph from the JetBlue flight cockpit which shows the LearJet aircraft obstructing the runway as it landed.

Only the quick-wittedness of the pilot of JetBlue Flight 206 prevented a collision, investigators said. The pilot performed a “climb maneuver” to narrowly avoid the other aircraft.

The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet – flying for Hop-A-Jet, a Florida-based private charter company – had been asked to line up and read back instructions from the air traffic controller. But the pilot “then started the take-off run instead”.

He then told investigators: “I can’t figure out what happened to me on clearance, the only thing that comes to mind is the cold weather in Boston affected me, I don’t I didn’t feel completely well and had a stuffy nose. My apologies.’

Only the quick-wittedness of the pilot of JetBlue Flight 206 prevented a collision, investigators said. The pilot performed a “climb maneuver” to narrowly avoid the other aircraft (circled)

He didn’t learn of the near miss until after he arrived at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The crew of the private jet was informed “that they had taken off without clearance and that an aircraft which had been cleared to land on runway 04 executed a go-around, passing approximately 400 feet above them “.

The incident report said: “The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause(s) of this incident are: Hop-a-Jet flight crew taking off without take-off clearance resulting in conflict with a JetBlue flight that had been cleared to land on an intersecting runway.

The JetBlue plane, an Embraer 190, was just 30 feet above the ground and approaching the intersecting runway when the two planes approached each other.

The chilling incident follows a string of other near-misses at US airports this year, prompting experts to warn the industry faces ‘the biggest disaster in its history’ if the tide is not reversed not.

The JetBlue aircraft, an Embraer 190 like the one pictured, was landing at Logan International Airport in Boston on February 27 when it nearly crashed into a private jet.

The 63-year-old captain of the LearJet – a plane similar to the one pictured – told investigators: ‘I can’t figure out what happened to me on clearance, the only thing that comes to mind is that the cold weather in Boston affected me, I didn’t feel quite well and had a stuffy nose. My apologies’

In February, a FedEx Boeing 767 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-wittedness prevented a crash.

The incident follows a similar near miss at John F. Kennedy International in New York on Friday, Jan. 13, when a Delta flight was forced to perform an emergency stop during takeoff as a plane d ‘American Airlines was crossing the same runway.

Aviation expert and pilot Juan Browne said: ‘These types of incidents are increasing at an alarming rate.

“There is huge turnover in the industry, not only among pilots, but also among air traffic controllers, mechanics, technicians, crawlers. And with the current state of hiring and training practices and the relentless efforts to do things faster, cheaper and more efficiently, we are just a radio call away from having the greatest air disaster in history.

In the JFK and Austin-Bergstrom incidents, experts said instructions issued by air traffic controllers appeared to have been a problem.

Kit Darby, aviation consultant and former United Airlines pilot, told DailyMail.com he thought the safety protocols to avoid near-misses were adequate, but added: ‘It’s a very extensive system and very complicated that relies on humans, and humans make mistakes. ‘

Tenerife airport disaster: 1970s plane crash that killed nearly 600 people in the deadliest crash in aviation history

Two Boeing 747 passenger planes collided at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) on March 27, 1977 in the deadliest aviation accident in history.

Both flights had been redirected to the airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife that day after members of the Canary Islands Independence Movement detonated a bomb at airports in Gran Canaria.

The airport quickly became congested with parked planes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing planes onto the runway.

The problem arose when KLM Flight 4805 was beginning its takeoff roll while Pan-Am Flight 1736 was still on the runway.

The impact and resulting fire killed everyone aboard the KLM flight and most of the occupants of the Pan-Am flight, leaving only 61 survivors at the front of the aircraft.

There were 583 deaths.

The Tenerife airport disaster was the deadliest aviation accident in history

A subsequent Spanish investigation revealed that the KLM pilot mistakenly thought he had clearance to take off.

Meanwhile, Dutch investigators said there was a mutual misunderstanding in radio communications between the pilot and air traffic control.

But eventually, KLM admitted that its crew was responsible and the airline agreed to compensate the relatives of all the victims.

Following the disaster, airports around the world agreed to use standardized phraseology in their radio communications.