Style

WestJet Plane involved in near-miss at LA International Airport

by AndrewRideout | August 17, 2007 at 01:55 pm

1441 views | 10 Recommendations | 4 comments

The associated press is reporting that a 737 from Canada's WestJet Airlines came within 15 meters of colliding with a Northwest Airlines Flight.

"The close call happened at about 1 p.m. and appeared to have been the
result of mistakes made by both the arriving pilot and a ground traffic
controller, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration."

"The 'runway incursion' was the eighth such incident at LAX this year, matching the total for all of 2006."

The WestJet plane was in the process of landing, while the Northwest aircraft was attempting to take off.

WestJet is refusing to comment at this time.

UPDATE (8/18/07- 4:39 PM EST) - Additional information has been released by WestJet in relation to the near-miss at LA International. The plane had nitially taken off from Calgary and it appears as though current reports place the majority of the blame squarely on the WestJet pilot.

From Canada.com

"The WestJet pilot apparently switched to the ground control
frequency without instruction and then said something that the ground
controller took to mean he'd been cleared to cross a runway, Gregor
said.

It is thought the ground controller assumed the flight had been
cleared and gave the pilot instructions to go to his gate without
checking with the air traffic controller first.

'Of course, the WestJet pilot had not been cleared to cross that (runway),' Gregor said."

More details are expected to surface in the coming weeks due to several different internal investigations.

Also from Canada.com

"He would not comment on the experience of the pilot, say whether
pilot error caused the problem or speculate on what measures WestJet
would take to address the issue if its staff were in the wrong.

WestJet's internal investigation is expected to last between two to three weeks."

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

ryan

at 13:58 on August 17th, 2007

AndrewRidout, thanks for getting this up so quickly. Sounds like a close call. In future when referencing other sources, try the highlight tool, check it out here

Kaitlin

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:42 on August 17th, 2007

AndrewRideout, thanks.

When is a close call more than a close call? How close do the planes have to get before they call it something else? As far as I'm concerned, 15 metres is a crash. They should really think of it that way in order to change it. What is traffic control doing when this happens? Who are these pilots?

AndrewRideout

at 12:58 on August 18th, 2007

Hi Kaitlin,

They aren't releasing any details about who the pilot is at this point, but they assure everybody that an internal investigation is going down. I think they prefer the term "near miss" for this type of incident- it seems to be almost their technical term. George Carlin said "When two planes almost collide, they call it a near miss. It's a near hit. A collision is a near miss."