Near Miss at LaGuardia Airport Under Investigation
Recently, there was a near miss involving two planes at LaGuardia Airport, stemming from some evident miscommunication between air traffic controllers. The federal government is looking into the incident.
This close call occurred on May 6. A Republic Airways flight was attempting to take off when it unexpectedly crossed paths with a United Airlines aircraft that was still taxiing. The United plane had to abort its takeoff to avoid a potential collision.
Audio recordings from the incident, shared by ABC from Liveatc, reveal an air traffic controller expressing some confusion to the Republic Airways pilots, saying, “Sorry, I thought United had cleared it before that.”
As the Republic Airways jet readied for takeoff, another controller had guided the United flight to leave the runway, which might have added to the confusion, according to reports.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board are currently conducting an investigation into the matter.
LaGuardia is one of the 35 U.S. airports that has upgraded to a new FAA radar system called ASDS-X, crafted specifically to help reduce runway incursions. Notably, the rate of such incidents has remained stable at around 30 per million takeoffs and landings over the past decade.
Conversely, the remaining 490 airports in the U.S. still use traditional control towers, relying on older technologies like binoculars to keep track of ground traffic.
If Congress agrees on a multi-billion-dollar proposal to modernize the air traffic control system, it seems likely that systems like ASDS-X will be on Transportation Secretary Shawn Duffy’s agenda. Just last month, Duffy criticized the outdated technology still in use, describing it as a system of “copper wire and floppy disks.”
LaGuardia officials have stated intentions to implement additional measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
This latest close call joins a worrying trend of near misses at some of the busiest airports across the U.S. Newark Liberty International Airport has recently experienced system outages linked to aging tech, which might contribute to airport safety issues.
In February, some American Airlines flights had to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., to steer clear of other planes taking off from the same runway.
