Business Jet, Airliner Have ‘Close Call’ at Boston Logan

A Bombardier Learjet 60 taking off on February 27 from Boston Logan International Airport (KBOS) had what the Federal Aviation Administration said was a “close call” with a JetBlue Embraer E190 that was preparing to land. The FAA is investigating the incident and noted, “This is the fifth near-collision involving an airliner on a runway this year.”

“According to a preliminary review, the pilot of the Learjet 60 took off without clearance while the EMB-190 was preparing to land on an intersecting runway,” the FAA said in a statement. The agency added that the Learjet was being operated by Florida-based charter provider Hop-A-Jet. That company has yet to respond to BJT’s inquiries seeking comment.

Logan Tower “instructed the pilot of the Learjet to line up and wait on Runway 9 while the JetBlue aircraft landed on Runway 4R, which intersects Runway 9,” the FAA said. “The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly, but began a takeoff roll instead.” Air traffic control instructed the JetBlue pilot to go around as the Learjet crossed the intersection. The FAA is investigating how close the two aircraft came to each other.

The event at Logan is the latest such incident involving airliners in the past few months. Others have occurred at New York John F. Kennedy Airport in January; in Austin, Texas, and Burbank, California, in February; and in Hawaii in December.