United Airlines Planes Strike Each Other on Runway at Boston’s Logan Airport, FAA Investigating

A United Airlines passenger jet lands at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, on Dec. 6, 2019. Chris Helgren/Reuters

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the collision of two United Airlines planes on the runway at Boston’s Logan International Airport that occurred on March 6, the agency has said.

According to the FDA, the two planes struck one another at the airport, but no injuries were reported.

“As a tow tug was pushing it back from the gate at Boston Logan International Airport, the right wing of United Airlines Flight 515 struck the tail of United Airlines Flight 267 around 8:30 a.m. local time this morning,” the FAA told Fox News of Monday’s incident.

“Both aircraft were Boeing 737s that were scheduled for departure,” the FAA added. “The FAA will investigate.”

Flight 515 was heading to Newark, New Jersey, and Flight 267 was scheduled to fly to Denver, airport officials told The Associated Press.

The two aircraft were taken out of service, United said, adding that flights were rescheduled for later in the day.

“While pushing back from its gate yesterday at Boston Logan, the wing of one United aircraft made contact with another United plane parked at the neighboring gate,” United said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times. “Customers on both aircraft deplaned normally and we’ve made arrangements to get them to their destinations on different aircraft.”

The latest incident at Logan International Airport came just over a week after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that a separate “incursion” occurred at the same airport on Feb. 27 when a Learjet 60 “began a takeoff roll as a JetBlue Embraer 190 was preparing to land on an intersecting runway.”

That incident occurred just before 7 p.m. Eastern time.

A Delta Air Lines aircraft flies past the U.S. Capitol before landing at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 24, 2022. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

NTSB Investigating Near-Misses

According to a preliminary review by the FAA, an air traffic controller had asked the pilot of the Learjet 60 to line up and wait on Runway 9 while JetBlue Flight 206 was about to land on an intersecting runway. However, the pilot of the Learjet flight took off despite not being given clearance.

“The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly, but began a takeoff roll instead. The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection. The Learjet was operated by Hop-A-Jet, a private charter company. The FAA will determine the closest proximity between the two aircraft as part of the investigation,” said the FAA in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

No damage or injuries were reported in that incident either. NTSB is probing that close call too.

The agency is also probing a string of other incidents that have happened in recent months, including near-misses in Austin, Honolulu, New York City, and Burbank, California.

In January, a Delta Air Lines flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport was forced to abort a planned takeoff after an American Airline flight crossed the same runway despite not being given clearance to do so. The two planes came within 1,400 feet of colliding.

Also in January, a Cessna flight and a United Airlines jet came around 1,170 feet from each other at the Honolulu International Airport, and in February, a FedEx cargo plane was cleared to land just as a Southwest flight was approved to take off from the same runway at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Texas.

In that same month, two planes nearly collided on a runway at Bob Hope Burbank Airport after the crew of a Mesa Airlines CRJ900 that was landing “executed a pilot-initiated go-around” as a SkyWest Embraer E175 was taking off from the same runway.

A Southwest Airlines airplane comes in for a landing at Los Angeles International Airport on May 12, 2020. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Southwest Airlines Flight Aborts Landing

More recently, a Southwest Airlines flight from Baltimore, Maryland to Raleigh, North Carolina left passengers “horrified” after the plane hit bad weather, causing the aircraft to shake “like crazy” as it landed.

The landing was eventually aborted and the plane diverted to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, instead. However, passengers were reportedly left stranded in a closed airport overnight.

Southwest Airlines told the New York Post that the shaky landing was due to “weather conditions at RDU (Raleigh-Durham International Airport).”

“We made the decision to safely divert Southwest flight 3094 (BWI – RDU) to MYR due to weather conditions at RDU,” the airline said in a statement. “We brought in another crew and aircraft to transport the passengers to their final destination as soon as we were able to safely do so.”

On Sunday, a different Southwest Airlines flight en route to Florida from Cuba was forced to turn back after birds struck the engine, causing it to catch fire and fill the cabin with smoke.

The plane returned to Cuba and landed safely. No injuries were reported.

It is unclear exactly what is prompting the uptick in near-misses and other incidents, however, Flight Safety Foundation CEO Hassan Shahidi told CBS News that they could be driven in part by increased demand in travel following the COVID-19 pandemic.

That, combined with thousands of new pilots that have entered the aviation industry, could be placing additional on the system, said Shahidi.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.