Jet Nearly Hits Cessna After Leaving Burbank
A United Airlines jetliner reported passing within 300 to 500 feet of a small plane moments after taking off from Burbank Airport in one of at least four near-misses over the United States involving a commercial airliner last Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.
No one was injured and no planes were believed damaged in the incidents at Burbank, Saginaw, Mich.; Newark, N.J., and Chicago, but the FAA said the four commercial incidents in a 10-hour period were considerably more than usual. There was an average of slightly less than one near-miss a day last year.
The FAA was criticized during a congressional hearing in Washington last week because of the increasing number of such incidents and an increase in “operational errors,” incidents in which controllers permitted planes to fly closer to one another than permitted under FAA regulations.
Around 3,800 Feet
The incident over the San Fernando Valley occurred at about 1:47 p.m. Friday as United Airlines Flight 268--a Boeing 737 jetliner bound for Chicago--climbed through the 3,800-foot level about three miles southwest of Burbank Airport, the FAA said.
The pilot, whose name has not been released, later told FAA investigators that he passed within 300 to 500 feet of a twin-engine Cessna that was flying at about the same altitude. It was not immediately determined whether either plane took evasive action. The number of people aboard the two aircraft was not reported.
FAA spokeswoman Ellie Brekke said the jetliner pilot complained that he was momentarily unable to talk with the controller at the Burbank Terminal Radar Approach Control facility assigned to his flight because of radio congestion.
The controller was watching the jetliner on a radar screen and the other plane “had just appeared on the screen” and apparently was establishing radio contact with Burbank controllers when the incident occurred, according to Brekke.
She said the incident apparently occurred well within the Burbank airport radar surveillance area, an airspace surrounding the airport in which all pilots are required to establish two-way radio communication with controllers.
Brekke said she did not know whether the small plane and its pilot had been identified.
The FAA said these other incidents were reported Friday:
--At 12:24 p.m. Michigan time, a Northwest Airlines DC-9 was flying at 9,000 feet about 22 miles southwest of Saginaw when a single-engine Piper Cherokee crossed 500 feet ahead of it at the same altitude. The FAA said controllers had warned the pilot of the jetliner about the smaller plane when it was six miles away.
--At 12:25 p.m. Chicago time, an American Airlines Boeing 727 passed within 600 feet of an unidentified small plane as the jetliner was preparing to land at Chicago’s O’Hare Field. FAA spokesman Fred Farrar said in Washington that the small plane apparently was in violation of the restricted airspace around the airport.
--At 5:53 p.m. Newark time, a Trans World Airlines L-1011 was making a landing approach at Newark International Airport when a small unidentified plane passed within 250 feet. The TWA pilot said he had to bank the jumbo jet sharply to avoid the smaller plane. Farrar said controllers had warned the TWA pilot about the smaller plane twice.
In February, the FAA announced that air traffic controllers in California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii will undergo special “reinforcement” training to help them spot and issue warnings about aircraft that may be heading for collisions.
FAA officials said the need for such training “may have been brought to light” by the collision between an Aeromexico jetliner and a small plane over Cerritos last August that claimed 82 lives.
