2nd near collision at JFK airport
WASHINGTON (AP) - July 11, 2008 The FAA moved quickly to change takeoff and landing procedures
at JFK on perpendicular runways - the kind of runways involved in
both incidents.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said a Delta Flight 123 was arriving
at the airport Friday when the pilot decided to abort his landing
and execute a "go-around" - a routine procedure often used during
heavy congestion. That caused the Delta flight to intersect with
the flight path of Comair Flight 1520, a regional jet that was
taking off on another runway.
The FAA ordered new procedures Friday afternoon to change the
way takeoffs and landings on perpendicular runways are sequenced,
Brown said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The new procedures are designed to ensure "that aircraft of one
runway clear out of the path of the other runway before the second
flight comes down on the other runway," Brown said. "We've had
two events recently and I think we want to make sure the
appropriate safety margins are in place."
Last Saturday, a Cayman Airways flight was landing at JFK when
the pilot decided to abort the landing a fly around the airport
again as a LAN Chile jet was taking off. Their flight paths
crossed, bringing the planes within about 200 feet of each other
vertically and a half-mile horizontally. The National
Transportation Safety Board is investigating that incident.
On Friday, the Delta jet, a Boeing 757, and the Comair plane, a
Bombardier CRJ9, came within 600 feet of each other vertically and
a half-mile horizontally, the FAA said.
The agency said it was not classifying either incident as a
"near collision" because there was no violation of standards for
how apart planes can fly, Brown said.
Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin initially said the incident took
place a week ago on July 4. However, Laughlin later told The
Associated Press that the FAA was correct, and the incident took
place on Friday at 1:20 p.m. Comair is a subsidiary of Delta.
"This did happen today," Laughlin said. "This is what we
call, and what the FAA classifies, as a 'proximity event."'
Laughlin said she didn't know how many people were aboard the
Delta flight, which came from Shannon, Ireland, but the plane seats
170 passengers.
Dean Iacopelli, a representative for the New York National Air
Traffic Controllers Association, said the FAA has "terminated that
perpendicular simultaneous approach procedure."
Barrett Byrnes, who president of the controllers union at the
JFK tower, said controllers have long sought the procedure changes.
"The FAA put out an order to JFK to no longer use that
approach. That's exactly what we wanted to happen," Byrnes said.
"We've been trying to change that for the last 12, 13 years. It's
been an accident waiting to happen."
Friday's incident began when the Delta flight was handed off
from the FAA's traffic control center in Westbury, N.Y., to the JFK
tower as the plane prepared to land. In the handoff, the Delta
pilot apparently wasn't using the communication frequency the
flight was assigned to communicate with the JFK tower, Brown said.
The JFK tower and the Delta jet did not establish contact until
the flight was 1.5 miles from touching down on the runway, Brown
said. The flight was cleared to land by the tower, but the pilot
decided to abort the landing, Brown said.
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Associated Press writer Marcus Franklin in New York contributed
to this report.