In a Span of 90 Minutes, 2 Flights Had to Abort Landings

The drumbeat of concerning aviation stories didn't let up on Wednesday, with the news that a second flight had to maneuver to avoid a potential collision on Tuesday. Fox News reports the pilot of an American Airlines plane that was making its final descent toward DC's Reagan National Airport at 8:20am spotted another plane that was readying for takeoff on the same runway. The pilot of Flight 2246 from Boston was instructed to perform a go-around maneuver by an air traffic controller, pulling up the plane and ascending instead to "ensure separation was maintained between this aircraft and a preceding departure," said the FAA in a statement.

Some 90 minutes later, pilots on a Southwest Airlines flight attempting to land at Chicago's Midway Airport had to abort their own landing to avoid a smaller private aircraft crossing the runway. In that instance, the "business jet entered the runway without authorization," per the FAA's preliminary statement. It is investigating along with the NTSB. The AP reports four major aviation disasters have occurred in in North America since Jan. 26:

• The midair collision of an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at National Airport on that date killed all 67 people involved.
• A medical transport jet carrying a child patient, her mother, and four others crashed Jan. 31 in a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing them and a seventh person on the ground.
• The Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska that killed all 10 people on board.
• Some 21 people were injured Feb. 17 when a Delta flight flipped over while landing at Toronto's Pearson Airport.