NTSB chair to warn lawmakers of potential for ‘catastrophic’ runway accident

The head of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will warn lawmakers on 7 February about the risk of a potential looming “catastrophic” airline accident at a US airport. The warning from NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy will come during a House hearing three days after what appears to have been an incredibly dangerous runway incursion event involving Southwest Airlines and FedEx jets at Austin. Homendy will also highlight the need for improved cockpit voice recorders, noting that recordings from two other recent runway incidents had been unavailable to investigators. That is according to Homendy’s written testimony to a 7 February hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Several aviation leaders will testify at the meeting, which lawmakers called to address the Federal Aviation Administration’s next budget bill. Homendy’s written testimony, reviewed by FlightGlobal, does not cite the FedEx-Southwest near miss at Austin on 4 February. But it mentions several previous serious runway incidents involving commercial jets. Those include an Air Canada aircraft that nearly landed on a San Francisco airport taxiway in 2017, and two 2022 incidents involving large jets landing on runways different from those assigned. “Although there were no injuries or damages due to these two incidents, they, along with the Air Canada event… illustrate the potential for a catastrophic accident,” the testimony says. This year, US commercial jets have been involved in at least two other serious airport incidents.<br/>