Posted on 06/23/2026 3:58:44 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into an apparent close call at Logan Airport in Boston over the weekend.
They said an American Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff around 11:30 a.m. Saturday on the same runway where a Delta flight was landing.
The Delta pilots saw what was happening and were able to abort the landing and pull up in time to avoid hitting the American plane. The jets were an estimated 300 feet apart, according to CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave.
The FAA said an American Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff around 11:30 a.m. Saturday June 20, 2026 on the same runway where a Delta flight was landing. CBS News
The maneuver is called a "go-around." The Delta flight from Dallas was able to land on its second attempt without any issues. No one was hurt. There were 129 passengers and six crew members on the flight, according to the airline. The American flight was heading to Charlotte, North Carolina.
An air traffic control audio recording of the incident has raised the question if the air traffic controllers lost track of the American Airlines flight after they cleared it for takeoff.
No other information is available at this point in the investigation.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
AVIATION Ping!..................
odd, the article says they were on the same runway, the graphic indicates they were on different runways.
As with all reporting of aviation, it’s usually wrong. These two nitwits are senior editors.
EC
Intersecting. So, I guess technically at the crossing they say it is the same runway.
Luckily, no one DEId.
Is Harrison Ford flying again?
I certainly hope not.
It looks like the Boston runway layout follows state of the art 1930s design.
Simultaneous operations on crossing runways seems like a generally bad idea.
Yes, I would think they would have parallel runways with crossings at the ends..............
Putting an international airport in the harbor was an even dumber idea. Especially when that harbor in the North Atlantic gets fogged in fairly often.
It is one of the reasons why Manchester, NH and Providence, RI airports grew up until covid. Now, we are starting to finally see some of the flights return to Manchester.
The real killer was when Delta bailed on Manchester. Now JetBlue is pulling out.
When Southwest first came into New England they flew out of Providence and Manchester because the gate fees were so much cheaper than Logan. $49 flights to Baltimore. People used to go there for Red Sox weekends. Tampa and Philly too.
Manchester tends not to have the weather issues that Logan does.
Manchester is easy to park at. It does not cost $50/day to park there either. It used to be a great option for flying to connecting airports. Like Newark, Philly, Baltimore, Ohare or Midway. When NW was here prior to Delta they had flights to Detroit and Mnpls. Which was great for heading west.
Well, if they wanted anything larger than a Lockheed or a DC-2 for passenger service, they needed a place for the big seaplanes to land. So it made sense at the time, as did a triangular runway layout.
“They said an American Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff around 11:30 a.m. Saturday on the same runway where a Delta flight was landing.”
NOT CORRECT!
INTERSECTING runways!!!!!! NOT the SAME runway.
Maroons!
I thought his name was Johnny.
They talked 40 years ago about turning the airbase in Concord, MA into a commercial airport. BUT, the rich liberals in the area did not want it. There was also talk about building another Boston airport out by the 495 beltway closer to Worchester. That never happened.
Pease Air base in Greenland/Portsmouth, NH has a 12m’ runway. There is an Air National Guard Tanker wing that is still stationed there. It was an alternate landing strip for the Space Shuttle. Those flying gas tanks need every bit of runway to get off he ground.
OK, I watched the VAS youtube on this. American pilot needs to get a good share of the blame. He sat at the end of the runway for almost a full minute after getting clearance. At a busy airport, he should have let the controller know if he wasn’t ready. He may have been waiting for the crossing aircraft down field to clear the runway, but he really should have communicated better. It does appear from the audio that the controller forgot that he gave clearance.
At least the Delta pilot was paying attention, no one else was.
As others have noted, the posted story is just flat wrong, it took two reporters to screw up that badly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.