The air traffic control tower at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) during a heatwave in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Photo: Ash Ponders/BloombergAviation Collisions: Legal Duties and Responsibilities
The two principal safeguards against collisions are air traffic controllers and pilots. This article will discuss the legal issues that arise when these lines of defense fail.
January 29, 2025 at 10:26 AM
15 minute read
On Jan. 11, 2024, a Delta Airlines Airbus 330 flew dangerously close to a United Airlines Boeing 737 while approaching Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Both aircraft landed safely but the event triggered a Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) investigation. The incident was the latest in a series of worrying near collision events involving passenger aircraft.
These incidents shine a spotlight on our fragile air traffic control system and are concerning for obvious reasons. Catastrophic collisions pose risks to the lives of everyone on board multiple airplanes as well as people on the ground. Indeed the deadliest aviation accident in history was the runway collision on March 27, 1977, between a departing KLM Boeing 747 and a taxiing Pan Am Boeing 747 in Tenerife. That collision took 583 lives.
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