Jetliner Taking Off Leapfrogs Over Smaller Plane on Runway
A Pan Am jet taking off with 136 people was forced into a steep climb to avoid a small plane mistakenly allowed onto the runway, and the aircraft came within 20 to 50 feet of each other, an official said today.
No one was injured in the incident Sunday at Logan International Airport.
The Boeing 727 scraped its tail in the maneuver and had to return to the airport for examination, said Michael Ciccarelli, regional spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The extent of the damage was not immediately known.
The Pan Am flight to New York City had been cleared for takeoff just after 8 p.m., Ciccarelli said.
“In what appears to be an operational error, the controller cleared a Precision Airlines Flight 649, a twin-prop, to taxi from an intersection about halfway down the runway,” Ciccarelli said. “The Pan American airplane had to accelerate its takeoff and went over the Precision Flight by about 20 to 50 feet.”
Ciccarelli said the controller was about three-quarters of the way through an eight-hour shift and was immediately relieved of his duties pending an investigation.
The jet was carrying 129 passengers and seven crew members; the Precision flight had five passengers and three crew members, Ciccarelli said.
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