U.S. News

Airline Close Calls Are Now Happening All the Time: Report

AIR FARCE

Some scary near-misses make the news. But lots of others never make it into the public eye.

The air traffic control tower is seen on the tarmac at the airport in Phoenix, Arizona, July 18, 2017.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Close calls involving commercial airlines in the U.S. are occurring with alarming regularity, according to a New York Times investigation that says such incidents happen much more frequently than most people realize. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) internal records and other sources show that near-misses involving commercial airliners have happened on average multiple times a week this year, the Times reports, with many occurring at or near airports as a result of human error. Nationwide understaffing of air traffic controllers has been cited as a major contributing factor for the scary events, of which there were 46 involving commercial airliners last month alone, according to the report.

Read it at The New York Times