New details released in close call involving Air Canada jet

A report from US officials has found that two planes came within a kilometre of each other at a Florida airport after air traffic control gave an American Airlines jet permission to land on the same runway that an Air Canada Rouge jet was about to take off on. The incident happened just before 9 p.m. on Feb. 16 at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in the Tampa Bay area. In a preliminary report published on Thursday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said air traffic control had cleared the American Airlines jet from Charlotte, N.C. to land on Runway 14. However, air traffic control had also cleared an Air Canada Rouge plane heading to Toronto for takeoff on the same runway, despite the fact that the American Airlines jet was on a final approach towards the runway, less than 5.5 kilometres away. When the American Airlines jet was 2.8 kilometres away, the controller confirmed that the Air Canada Rouge plane was to takeoff from the runway. About 53 seconds later, the American Airlines pilots aborted the landing, known in aviation as a "go-around." "What was the reason for your go-around?" the controller could be heard asking the American Airlines pilot on the air traffic control recording. "A guy was still on the runway," the American Airlines pilot said, referring to the Air Canada Rouge jet that was about to take off. "That's a good reason," the controller replied. At their closest point, there two aircraft were around 1.1 kilometres away from each other. There were no injuries and no damage to either aircraft, but this report comes at a time when U.S. airports have been seeing an uptick in close calls, also known as runway incursions. On Wednesday, the NTSB and the US FAA held a safety summit to discuss these near-misses with representative from the industry, union and aviation experts. <br/>