Planes were just 300ft apart in Boston airport near miss, expert says | Boston

A Delta jet was about 300 feet (90 meters) away from an American Airlines plane during a close call at a Boston airport, an aviation expert said Sunday, forcing the Delta plane to abort its landing attempt over the weekend.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating an incident between two commercial flights that occurred Saturday at Boston Logan international airport.

Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer at Boeing, estimated the distance between two jetliners using Flightradar24, a website that tracks flights. Curtis is currently co-producing a podcast about flight safety issues.

“This is a significant incident,” Curtis said, adding that the incident was particularly concerning because it involved two professional airline crews.

He said federal aviation officials have been concerned about such runway incursions for some time and will review Saturday’s close call.

Near misses and runway incursions at US airports will be the subject of a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The Senate commerce subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation will look at ways to strengthen security across the national airspace system.

According to the FAA and flight records, the Delta flight from Dallas was forced to go around or abort a landing to prevent the American plane from leaving an intersecting runway.

An airline spokesperson said the crew of Delta Flight 2351 coordinated with air traffic control to carry out the transition. According to the spokesperson, the plane with 129 passengers and 6 crew on board landed safely and landed normally.

According to the FAA, handovers are safe, routine procedures performed at the discretion of the pilot or air traffic controllers.