© Reuters. A view of the air traffic control tower at O’Hare International Airport after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered airlines to stop all domestic departures due to a system outage, in Chicago, Illinois, USA USA, January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Jim V
By David Sheparson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration issued safety alerts to airlines, pilots and others on Wednesday about the “need for continued vigilance and attention to mitigate safety risks” after a series of high-profile near misses.
“While the overall numbers do not reflect an increase in incidents and occurrences, the potential severity of these events is concerning,” the FAA said.
Six serious runway incursions have occurred since January that prompted the agency to convene a safety summit last week.
“Operators should evaluate the information collected through their safety management processes, identify hazards, increase and improve safety communications with employees, and enact mitigations,” the alert said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a number of serious near-miss incidents, including a near collision in January between FedEx (NYSE:) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) planes in Austin, Texas, where the planes came to less than 100 feet from each other, and a runway incursion at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport involving an American Airlines (NASDAQ:) plane.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week that the United States could not wait for the next “catastrophic event” before addressing the surge in near aviation calls.
NTSB President Jennifer Homendy said the board had previously issued seven recommendations about runway collisions that had not been acted on.
“There have been too many close calls,” Homendy said at the summit last week. “These recent incidents should serve as a wake-up call.”
In a “call to action” memo last month, acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen said he was putting together a safety review team.
In January, the FAA halted all outbound passenger airline flights for nearly two hours due to a computer outage, the first such nationwide ground outage since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The United States has not had a major fatal passenger airline accident since February 2009.
