Stunning photos shot from the cockpit of a JetBlue Airways Corp. plane show how close the aircraft came to colliding on a Boston runway early this year in one of a surging number of airline close calls.
The JetBlue aircraft was only 30 feet off the ground, preparing to touch down, when a Hop-A-Jet Worldwide Jet Charter Inc. plane crossed in front of it at high speed, according to a US National Transportation Safety Board report issued Thursday.
The agency concluded the crew on the charter jet had caused the runway incident on Feb. 27, one of several that triggered safety warnings earlier this year. An air-traffic controller had told the charter jet’s pilots to wait on the runway, but the crew misunderstood and took off, the board said.
The investigators released vivid images from the JetBlue cockpit showing the other plane clearly visible as the airliner neared the ground. The JetBlue pilots aborted their landing and climbed after seeing the other plane. The still image was taken from a video recording made by a person sitting behind the pilots in the JetBlue plane, an Embraer SA EJR 190-100.
The case was one of an unexplained surge in high-risk runway incidents that occurred early this year, prompting the creation of a special safety review team by the Federal Aviation Administration to examine the issue.
There have been nine serious situations so far this year involving airlines that were rated as severe by the FAA or that prompted NTSB investigations. That’s about twice the annual average since 2018.
The FAA convened a symposium in March to get feedback on what’s causing the upsurge and required additional training for its controllers.
One of the most serious runway incidents occurred Feb. 4 in Austin, when a Southwest Airlines Co. plane took off as a FedEx Corp. wide-body cargo jet was about to land. The planes came within about 100 feet of each other.
In the Boston incident, the captain of the charter plane, a Learjet 60, told investigators that he understood in hindsight he wasn’t cleared to takeoff, but at the time was convinced he had permission to depart.
“I cannot understand what happened to me during the clearance,” he said in an email to the NTSB that was released Thursday as part of the case. “The only thing that comes to my mind is that the cold temperature in Boston affected me, I was not feeling completely well and had a stuffed nose.”
The captain of the JetBlue flight said they were even closer to the ground — only 20 feet high — when they passed over the runway where the charter plane was taking off. By that time, the smaller plane had already passed by, he said.
The JetBlue plane returned for a normal landing a short time later, NTSB said.