After a three-hour delay that stretched past midnight, passengers finally trudged into a regional jet at LaGuardia Airport for a 90-minute flight earlier this month. However, they wouldn’t be leaving the Big Apple. An American Eagle flight departing for Buffalo abruptly aborted a takeoff because a United Airlines Boeing 737 was taxiing across the runway. An air traffic controller mistakenly cleared the takeoff, forgetting that another airliner was still on the runway. The incident is yet another lowlight for the country’s recent aviation safety record.
It was around 12:30 a.m. when a Republic Airways Embraer E175, operating under the American Eagle banner, lined up for takeoff on Runway 13. United Airlines Flight 2657 just arrived from Houston on LaGuardia’s other runway but needed to taxi across Runway 13 to reach its gate. United 2657 missed its taxiway exit from the runway and received a new exit from the ground controller.
The air traffic controller assumed that United 2657 had left the runway and cleared the Republic jet for takeoff. Spotting an automated collision warning, the controller cancelled the clearance and the Republic flight crew thankfully heard the message. I say thankfully because the ATC recording shows that a Spirit Airlines pilot was interrupting the transmission during this crucial moment.
New technology won’t solve all the problems with air travel control
The actual stop was rough for the passengers on the Republic regional jet. Renee Hoffer told the AP, “The stop was as hard as any car accident I’ve been in.” Things didn’t get any better once the plane returned to the gate. Airline staff refused to give out hotel vouchers and blamed the aborted takeoff on the inclement weather. Hoffer ended up in the emergency room after losing feeling in her left arm and experiencing neck pain. She was diagnosed with a pinched nerve.
This near-miss incident happened just a week before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced his “Brand New Air Traffic Control System” plan, a proposal to rapidly modernize the country’s aviation safety infrastructure for $31 billion. Ignoring President Trump’s vision of handling a single massive contract for the plan to a single company, this investment is desperately needed for countless crumbling facilities.
However, LaGuardia is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to track planes and other vehicles on the ground. It’s one of just 35 airports with ASDE-X, a surveillance system that can track any kind of vehicle on the ground, even if they aren’t fitted with a transponder. This vital information is useless if the air travel controller is looking at the screen and still makes a mistake. The only safeguard would be for the flight crew in the cockpit to also receive an automated warning. The control towers are understaffed and the controllers are overworked. Installing tech from this century is only solving half of the problem.
