Two planes have close call at Florida airport, NTSB says

A passenger jet was cleared by air traffic controllers last month to land on the same runway at an airport in Sarasota, Florida, that another plane was cleared to take off, officials said Thursday. Similar close calls At US airports this year.

At approximately 9 p.m. EST on February 16, Air Canada Rouge Flight 1633 bound for Toronto, Canada was cleared to take off from the airport’s runway 14, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. However, American Airlines Flight 2172 from Charlotte, North Carolina was also cleared to land on the same runway.

The pilots of the American Airlines flight ultimately aborted their landing, the NTSB said in a preliminary report. The two planes were within six-tenths of a mile of each other at their closest, the NTSB said.

According to the NTSB, the Air Canada flight had 188 passengers and six crew members on board, while the American Airlines flight had 172 passengers and six crew members on board. There were no injuries.

The NTSB did not speculate on what caused the mix-up. The agency said it has assembled an air traffic control group to investigate the incident with help from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The initial report comes just a day later. Conducted by the FAA An emergency safety summit to deal with A myriad of recent near misses On airport runways, the first such emergency summit in 14 years.

“I think I speak for all of us, and certainly for the traveling public, that these incidents concern them,” Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said at the summit.

There have been at least nine such close calls so far this year. Latest event March 7 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia, when a plane was taxiing across a runway where another plane had been cleared to take off.