Bostons Logan has had six runway near hits in 2000

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Logan has had six runway near hits in 2000

By Associated Press, 06/14/00

BOSTON -- There have been six runway near hits between aircraft at Logan International Airport already this year, twice as many as all of last year, aviation officials say.

No two planes got closer than 1,000 feet from each other, but five of the close calls involved large commercial aircraft, airport officials reported to the Federal Aviation Commission.

In five of the six close calls, pilots were forced to abandon takeoffs after another aircraft moved onto their runway. One plane interfered with another aircraft's landing in the sixth incident.

"This is a national problem that's been growing," Massachusetts Port Authority spokesman Jose Juves said Tuesday. "It's something the national aviation community has been focused on."

Tuesday, federal safety investigators called for new steps to cut the number of close calls across the country in anticipation of an FAA safety summit on the issue scheduled later this month.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman James Hall said runway close calls have increased by more than 70 percent since 1993.

The FAA defines a close call as an event "that creates a collision hazard or results in loss of separation with an aircraft taking off, intending to take off, landing or intending to land."

"Separation" is the required minimum distance between one aircraft and another in any given situation.

Massport's Juves said Logan officials have developed solutions to make the airport's runways safer. Massport will double the size of the markings that tell pilots where to stop at runway intersections, add one foot to the width of taxiway center lines, improve signs and add reflective glass beads to the painted markings to boost nighttime visibility, he said.

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/14/logan.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 14, 2000

Answers

As a resident in the greater Boston area, I appreciate greatly this posting. While I don't read every inch of the newspaper, I would have expected to have heard this news locally.

Throughout Y2K concerns, I would pass along notice of a local or regional incident to a friend somewhere else in the world and frequently I would receive a reply that they had heard nothing about it in the local news.

Any thoughts as to the frequency and reason for such a pattern?

-- Jan Nickerson (JaNickrson@aol.com), June 14, 2000.


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