A near miss on Los Angeles runway
Posted on: August 21st, 2007 by Neill Zerk
Two commercial aircraft nearly collided on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport around 1 pm last Thursday, with equal blame going to both the pilot of the landing plane and the ground traffic controller, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.
The landing jet was a WestJet Boeing 737 coming from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and upon landing came within 50 feet of colliding with a Northwest Airbus A320 that was preparing for takeoff. The landing Boeing was still travelling at a speed of 150 mph when the taxiing Airbus nearly crossed its path.
Though a very close call, no one was hurt in the incident. Ian Gregor explained the problem that the arriving pilot was not on the same radio frequency as ground control so was unable to receive directions. When the pilot announced he was approaching the gate, ground controllers gave permission without checking the status with air traffic control and this mix up nearly cost the lives of a few hundred people. This was the seventh near miss at LAX this year.
www.westjet.com