Burbank Airport Incident Under Investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board announced Friday it was investigating Wednesday's runway incursion at Bob Hope Burbank Airport, California.

 

According to the NTSB, the Mesa Airlines CRJ900 crew performed a pilot-initiated turn-around as a SkyWest Embraer E175 was launching from the same runway. A "go-around" is an approach that was aborted. According to the NTSB, neither aircraft was damaged nor were any passengers hurt.

LiveATC.net recordings at the time of the incident show confusion about whether SkyWest was off the runway.

"Is he off the runway yet?" asked one unidentified voice. "We're going around," the crew of the Mesa flight responded.

This is the fourth runway intrusion involving commercial aircraftliners that the NTSB has been investigating since the beginning of the year. Other incidents include those at Austin, Honolulu and New York's JFK.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration statement, "The Mesa pilot discontinued the landing and initiated a climb out." They are also investigating the incident.

"Meanwhile, the SkyWest aircraft continued with its departure, which prompted an automated alert to sound on the flight deck of the Mesa aircraft," the FAA stated. The controller instructed the Mesa crew to turn to a course that took it away from the other aircraft."

The agencies have not said how close they were to colliding. Before this latest incident, the FAA had already conducted a thorough safety review.

"We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we cannot take this for granted. Recent events remind us that we must not become complacent," the acting FAA administrator, Billy Nolen mentioned in a memo about the safety review.

Source: cnn.com