Near-Miss Report Unfounded, FAA Says After Study
A United Airlines pilot who reported a near-miss with a small plane after taking off from Burbank Airport Friday apparently did not come dangerously close to the other aircraft after all, a Federal Aviation Administration official said Tuesday.
“It probably was just a situation where he didn’t expect to see the other aircraft where it was,” said Leonard Mobley, assistant air traffic manager at the Burbank Terminal Radar Control facility.
Mobley said tape recordings of radar data show the Boeing 737 and the twin-engine Cessna 310 apparently passed no closer than 1,200 feet, the minimum separation permitted under FAA regulations in the restricted airspace surrounding Burbank Airport.
The pilot of Friday’s United Airlines Flight 268 to Chicago filed a report indicating that he had passed within 300 to 500 feet of the other plane at 1:47 p.m. He said the encounter occurred at an altitude of 3,800 feet about three miles southwest of the airport.
Mobley said the pilot of the Cessna--which was on a flight from Van Nuys to Palm Springs--told FAA investigators that he saw the jetliner taking off from Burbank and believed that he passed “well below” it.
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