2 planes narrowly avoided colliding on a Colorado runway after a pilot's quick-thinking maneuver
REUTERS/Mike Segar
- Two planes nearly collided as one came into land and one tried to take off from the same runway.
- To avoid colliding, the pilot of the JetBlue plane took off steeply, smashing its tail into the runway.
- An alarming number of potentially dangerous close calls between aircraft have happened this year, FAA data suggests.
Two planes narrowly avoided colliding on a runway in Colorado after a JetBlue pilot made a quick-thinking maneuver.
Unclear communication between the planes and the air traffic control center led to one plane taking off and one coming in to land at around the same time on January 22, 2022, according to a National Transit Safety Board report published this week.
"I hope you don't hit us," the flight crew of a Beechcraft B300 King Air plane said as it descended to land at the Yampa Valley Airport.
The confusion was exacerbated by the fact that King Air had mentioned both "runway 28" and "runway 10" in communications.
The pilot of the JetBlue Airbus A320 on the runway decided to increase the thrust during take-off to avoid the incoming plane.
As the plane took off steeply, its tail struck the runway's surface, causing "substantial damage" to the plane, the report said.
A video shows the moment the JetBlue plane took off and smashed its tail into the ground.
The JetBlue captain made the move due to "his surprise about encountering head on landing traffic," the report said.
There have been an alarming number of potentially dangerous close calls between aircraft happening on average weekly, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.
The risks are exacerbated by a shortage of air traffic controllers creating an exhausted workforce prone to making mistakes, an investigation by The New York Times revealed.
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