Travel

FAA Investigating “Close Call” Over Boston Airport

NBC New reports: The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a “close call” between a JetBlue flight that was preparing to land and a Learjet that took off without clearance Monday night at Boston Logan International Airport, the agency said in a statement. According to a preliminary review, the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance while JetBlue Flight …

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Winter Storm Cancels/Delays Thousands Of Flights

Reuters reports: Airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights in the United States on Wednesday as a strong winter storm makes its way through the western and central states. A total of 1,510 flights within, into and out of the United States were canceled by 4:30 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware, which also showed 3,870 flights were delayed. Snow …

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TSA Agents Intercepted Record 6542 Handguns In 2022

The Associated Press reports: The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster. The weapon was one of the 6,542 guns the Transportation Security Administration intercepted last year at …

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FAA Issues “Safety Call” After Recent Near Disasters

Axios reports: The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) acting chief has issued a “safety call to action” after several narrowly-averted catastrophes in the past few months have raised serious concerns throughout the aviation community. It’s a public acknowledgement that the agency is acutely aware of those incidents, and is taking steps to investigate and learn from them. In an agency memo, …

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United Confirms Near Crash In December [VIDEO]

Hawaii News Now reports: Newly-released flight data reveals a San Francisco-bound United Airlines flight went into a steep dive shortly after taking off from the Kahului Airport, coming within almost 800 feet of impacting the ocean. The incident happened in mid-December of last year, but is only coming to light now. United Flight 1722 plunged toward the ocean moments after …

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Flight Crew Subpoenaed In JFK Runway Near Collision

Gothamist reports: The National Transportation Safety Board has subpoenaed an American Airlines crew involved in a runway incident at John F. Kennedy Airport. The crew was onboard an American Airlines plane headed for London in mid-January when it crossed an active runway at JFK without air traffic clearance. The move caused a Delta Air Lines plane headed for Santo Domingo …

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Bus Collides With Airliner At LAX, Four Injured [VIDEO]

Los Angeles’s CBS affiliate reports: A passenger bus collided with a plane at the Los Angeles International Airport Friday, sending four people to the hospital, according to firefighters. The crash was reported around 10:15 p.m. The bus was involved in a low-speed crash with an American Airlines plane on a taxiway on the South Complex. According to the Los Angeles …

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NTSB: Austin Airport Near-Miss Was Within 100 Feet

Politico reports: A Southwest Airlines and FedEx cargo airplane avoided crashing into each other at the Austin airport over the weekend by less than 100 feet, the head of a federal investigating body said Monday. Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board said in an interview with POLITICO that the near-miss findings are still preliminary, but that …

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FAA Investigates Near-Miss At Austin Airport [VIDEO]

CBS News reports: A FedEx cargo airplane attempting to land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Saturday morning had to reverse course after a second plane was cleared to depart from the same runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Boeing 767 cargo airplane was several miles from the airport when it was cleared to land at about 6:40 a.m. …

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1300 Flights Canceled As Ice Storm Sweeps The South

NBC News reports: Nearly 1,300 flights within, to and from the United States were canceled Tuesday as an ice storm swept over parts of the South. The storm was concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, leaving the region hit the hardest with travel issues, with 374 flights canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to the online flight tracker …

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Southwest Ups Loss From Holiday Meltdown To $1.2B

Axios reports: Southwest Airlines has been in damage-control mode since its December holiday meltdown, working to defend its reputation. Now, that episode has an actual price tag. The airline said today the snafu cost it $800 million in the fourth quarter, driving it to a net Q4 loss. And it expects to take another $300 million to $350 million hit …

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DOT Opens Probe Into Southwest’s Holiday Snafus

CNN Business reports: The US Transportation Department said it is in the early stages of an investigation into the Southwest Airlines holiday travel meltdown in December. The probe includes an examination of whether Southwest is scheduling more flights than it can handle. “DOT is in the initial phase of a rigorous and comprehensive investigation into Southwest Airlines’ holiday debacle that …

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NYC’s $11B Grand Central Madison Terminal Opens

New York City’s ABC affiliate reports: The wait is over for many commuters, as the LIRR finally begins service at Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday. The station itself is called Grand Central Madison and it is built 17 stories below street level. That means it takes a few minutes to get there. From the street, most riders will travel down …

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Woman Sprays ATL Staff, Cops With Fire Extinguisher

Atlanta’s ABC affiliate reports: A woman was arrested Tuesday after police said she assaulted officers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and sprayed people with a fire extinguisher. At around 9:34 p.m., officers responded to concourse D at the airport in reference to a suspicious woman attempting to open secured doors inside the concourse. When officers arrived, airport security notified them …

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JetBlue Plane Strikes Tail Of Parked Aircraft At JFK

New York City’s NBC affiliate reports: A JetBlue flight from New York to Puerto Rico bumped into another plane in the gate area on Wednesday, the second time in a matter of days that two planes experienced an unusual incident at JFK Airport. Flight 1603 “came into light contact with a parked unoccupied aircraft during pushback,” a JetBlue spokesman said …

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Air Traffic Audio Released Of Near-Collision At JFK

CNN reports: Air traffic controllers had “noticed another aircraft crossing the runway in front of the departing jetliner,” the FAA said in a statement. “According to a preliminary analysis, Delta Air Lines Flight 1943 stopped its takeoff roll approximately 1,000 feet before reaching the point where American Airlines Flight 106, a Boeing 777, had crossed from an adjacent taxiway.” Audio …

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FAA To Investigate Near-Collision On JFK Runway

CNN reports: The Federal Aviation Administration announced it is starting a probe into how a commercial airliner taxied in front of a flight that was taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport Friday evening. The crew of a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 aborted its takeoff, ultimately stopping within 1,000 feet of the taxiing American Airlines Boeing 777, the …

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Delta CEO Urges Congress To Fund FAA System Update

The Hill reports: Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian on Friday urged Congress to boost funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following this week’s computer system outage that grounded U.S. flights for hours. Bastian said the FAA meltdown, which led to more than 10,000 delays on Wednesday, was “unacceptable” but placed blame on lawmakers for not prioritizing the agency. …

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Shareholders Sue Southwest Over Holiday Meltdown

Reuters reports: Shareholders filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines Co on Thursday, accusing the carrier of fraudulently concealing problems that led last month to an operational meltdown and more than 15,000 flight cancellations. According to the proposed class action filed in federal court in Houston, Southwest publicly downplayed or failed to disclose serious shortcomings in its flight scheduling software technology. …

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FAA System Outage Blamed On “Honest” Human Error

ABC News reports: The ground stop and Federal Aviation Administration systems failures Wednesday morning that impacted thousands of flights across the U.S. appear to have been the result of a mistake that occurred during routine scheduled systems maintenance, according to a senior official briefed on the internal review. An engineer “replaced one file with another,” the official said, not realizing …

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