An Air Canada Rouge aircraft narrowly escaped a disaster in Florida in February when its pilot was cleared onto a runway where an American Airlines aircraft was about to land.
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The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Monday that it is investigating an incident that occurred Feb. 16 at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, south of Tampa Bay.
The event occurred “when an Air Canada Rouge A321 aircraft was cleared to take off on runway 14, while an American Airlines Boeing 737 was cleared to land on the same runway,” explained the US agency on its Twitter feed.
Fortunately, the Boeing crew had the reflex to abort their landing sequence.
The US agency said in a statement sent to CTV News that the two planes were just under a kilometer away when American Airlines pilots became aware of the impending disaster.
The Airbus 321 is an aircraft that can carry about 185 passengers, while the Boeing 737 can carry, more or less, between 100 and 200 passengers, depending on the version of the aircraft and its layout.
Other similar disasters have also been narrowly avoided in recent times at US airports. The latest came last week in Boston when a plane mistakenly crossed an airstrip, cutting off the way for a JetBlue plane on final approach to land.