Within the span of 90 minutes on Tuesday morning, two airplanes, at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport and at Chicago’s Midway International Airport, were forced to abort landings to avoid collisions, federal aviation officials said.
American Airlines Flight 2246, arriving at National Airport from Boston, Mass., was making its final descent at about 8:20 a.m. when it suddenly canceled its landing, climbed toward the skies and accelerated away from the airport. The last-minute move allowed it to avoid colliding with another plane that was ready to take off from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The airplane’s pilots were told to scrap the landing by an air traffic controller to “ensure separation was maintained between this aircraft and a preceding departure from the same runway,” the F.A.A. said in a statement.
At about 8:50 a.m. Central time, the pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight 2504, traveling from Omaha, canceled the plane’s landing at Chicago Midway after “a business jet entered the runway without authorization,” the F.A.A. said in a statement.
Tuesday morning’s near misses continue to put a spotlight on recent concerns raised about the safety of the nation’s airspace following last month’s deadly midair crash outside National Airport. On Jan. 29, American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided above the Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the Jan. 29 crash.
On Tuesday, Itai Vardi, who said he was a passenger on American Airlines 2246, was nervous about his flight into National Airport for work meetings because of the recent crash.
Mr. Vardi, who lives in Boston, said he felt relief when his flight appeared to be less than a minute from landing, as he watched the airplane descend closer and closer to the runway from his window seat.
Then, without warning, the airplane took a sharp and rapid ascent from the ground leaving him overwhelmed with fear wondering what was happening and how it would end, he said.
“Obviously, because of the crash, I was wondering if I should look out for helicopters, then all of sudden this happened,” Mr. Vardi said in an interview. “There was nothing gradual about it. It felt like the pilot had to make an emergency maneuver.”
The airplane eventually safely landed at National Airport. No one was hurt.
American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the Chicago Midway incident.
Southwest Airlines, in a statement confirming the incident had occurred, said that “the crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”
Near misses and deadly plane crashes have beset the F.A.A. this year as it tries to navigate through an upheaval at the agency. About 400 employees were recently laid off as part of a restructuring of the federal government under President Trump, though air traffic controllers were exempt from the layoffs.
The collision last month at National Airport was the deadliest crash in the United States since a Colgan Air flight went down near Buffalo in 2009. Further adding to the F.A.A.’s recent struggles were two other deadly crashes — one in Philadelphia, the other in Alaska — that happened within 10 days of the crash in Washington.
The recent string of aviation woes has caught the attention of the Trump administration which has vowed to overhaul the F.A.A.’s air traffic control systems. Mr. Trump has previously said that he would talk to Congress about a bill to revamp the country’s aviation safety infrastructure.
The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, recruited Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, and Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to help with the effort. SpaceX employees have already visited the F.A.A.’s air-traffic command center in Virginia.
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