Jet Safely Aborts Landing on Occupied LAX Runway

An MD-80 passenger jet with more than 100 people aboard Wednesday was seconds from touching down on a runway occupied by a twin-engine airplane at Los Angeles International Airport before the pilot pulled up sharply to abort the landing, officials and witnesses said.

“We were about 50 feet above the ground, probably less than that, when we went into full throttle,” said passenger Edward Segal. “It was a dramatic departure.”

Continental Flight 1501 then circled five to 10 minutes before landing safely at 2:47 p.m. Fred O’Donnell, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said a small twin-engine propeller craft landed at least three minutes before the approach of the jet. Officials were not able to immediately identify the second plane.

Continental Airlines spokesman Dave Messing said the procedure was routine.

“Our understanding is that near the end of the plane’s approach, the tower requested our aircraft go around to allow additional time for another aircraft to clear the far end of the runway, about two miles away,” he said.

Before landing, the pilot said there had been a plane on the runway, said Segal, 42, a public relations consultant who described himself as a frequent flier of commercial airlines for 20 years. “He tried to joke that our trip was too short, so we’re going to make it a longer trip and try to go around and land again.

“No one laughed. My hat’s off to the pilot and crew for doing whatever they did to avoid what might have happened.”

National Transportation Safety Board Regional Director Gary Mucho said that similar incidents do not “happen every day, but it tells me the checks and balances were in place and operating at the time.”

In February, 34 people died after a USAir jetliner was cleared to land on the same Los Angeles International Airport runway where a controller had earlier directed a small commuter plane to await takeoff. The jetliner landed on top of the smaller plane.