Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Are the Skies Safe: Aborted Landings on Rise, Sez Union

We were warned. The mess which is the airline industry will cost lives in other ways not the result of terrorism.

The aerobatic maneuver that almost caused two airplanes to crash in midair at Kennedy Airport is becoming both more frequent and more risky in the area's clogged skyways, air traffic controllers warned Tuesday.

In Saturday's close call, a Cayman Airways jet aborted a landing and shot upward to prepare for another attempt - a move known as a go-around - coming as close as 100 feet to an LAN Chile aircraft departing from a nearby runway, controllers said.

The National Transportation Safety Board launched a probe into the incident yesterday. Investigators plan to interview the pilots and controllers and examine radar data and control tower recordings, a spokesman said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said there was never any risk of collision.

The two airlines involved also denied there was a near-miss, although Cayman Airways confirmed yesterday that a go-around was executed.

[...]"The incidence of go-around seems to be on the rise, and that's a product of an increase in air traffic," said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

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