Too Many Near Mid Air Collisions

Two planes that nearly collided last month at Newark International Airport were stunningly close. One plane, a United Airlines 737, was landing when a United Express flight was taking off on an intersecting runway. The ascending United Express Flight basically passed under the descending 737.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the planes were 135 yards away vertically and a mere 50 yards aware laterally. The NTSB’s final report will determine the cause of the near miss. Mostly like, it is the result of an error by either a pilot or air traffic control.

Air traffic controllers have been blamed in another recent near collision over the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Hawaii. According to the NTSB, two Boeing 757’s (one US Airways and another United Airlines planes) were assigned to the same altitude. The traffic avoidance system alerted pilots of the United Airlines flight, which descended 600 feet in 60 seconds to avoid a possible mid-air collision. No one was injured in the descent, but the passengers were certainly shaken up.

These types of mistakes cannot continue or, at some point, the worst will happen.