Southwest flight narrowly avoids collision with helicopter at Hollywood Burbank Airport

A plane almost collided with a helicopter at a Southern California airport on Saturday, just days after The Federal Aviation Administration held a summit on increasing safety concerns.

FAA officials said a Southwest flight was approaching a Hollywood Burbank Airport runway around 9:50 a.m. Saturday when an air traffic controller noticed a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter on the same runway.

According to an FAA statement, the helicopter had been practicing touch-and-go landings. After noticing the problem, the air traffic controller requested the Boeing 737 to turn back.

No one was injured and the matter is currently under investigation by the FAA.

The Boeing 737 was Phoenix Southwest flight N551WN, which was forced to turn around and attempt another landing after the near miss ended the first attempt to land.

FAA officials said a Southwest flight approached a runway at Hollywood Burbank Airport around 9:50 a.m. Saturday

The flight landed at 10:04 am, almost 15 minutes later due to the delay caused by the Bell 505 helicopter on the runway.

A similar situation occurred at Burbank Airport in February after a Mesa Airlines flight was told to abort landing because a SkyWest plane was given the green light to take off on the same runway. This was the fourth such incident in 2023.

According to NBC 4 Los Angeles, the Southwest flight, a Boeing 737, was just a mile from the runway.

The air traffic controller, noticing the serious safety issue, instructed the helicopter to stay on the runway and the Southwest pilot to “circumnavigate” rather than land.

During the similar incident last month at the same Southern California airport, an automatic alarm went off on the Mesa Airlines plane as the planes worked to avoid a near miss.

The February scare was reportedly one of the main factors prompting the FAA to hold an impromptu safety summit to address growing concerns.

Just weeks before the Burbank near miss, two Alaska Airlines planes scraped the runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on takeoff.

This near miss was attributed to a software bug that led pilots to believe their planes were 20,000 pounds lighter.

A plane nearly collided with a helicopter at a Southern California airport on Saturday, just days after the Federal Aviation Administration held a summit over mounting safety concerns

When the plane was about a mile away, an air traffic controller noticed a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter on the same runway

According to the Seattle Times, Alaska Airlines considered the problem serious enough to initiate a statewide grounding of all aircraft immediately afterwards.

At the time, an Alaska Airlines spokesman confirmed to DailyMail.com that the incident took place and took about 20 minutes to land.

“The tail touches were caused by a vendor’s software update that incorrectly installed code, resulting in inaccurate takeoff power-to-weight ratio data for a small portion of our flights,” they said.

Just weeks earlier, a separate flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport nearly saw a similar wreck when a Delta plane nearly ran nose-first into the side of an American Airlines jet that had cruised onto its runway.

The Boeing 737 was already traveling at 185 km/h when an air traffic controller noticed the impending disaster.

Another incident occurred March 7 between a Republic Airways flight and a United Airlines plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The Republic flight had traversed a runway and was on course to collide with the United plane, which had been cleared for takeoff.

This incident is also currently under investigation by the FAA.

The pilot of the Southwest Airlines flight was told to “circumnavigate” to avoid a collision

The air traffic controller at Hollywood Burbank Airport asked the helicopter to stop

During the similar incident last month at the same Southern California airport, an automatic alarm went off on the Mesa Airlines plane as the planes worked to avoid a near miss

Mesa Airlines CRJ900 collided with another plane just minutes in February

Air traffic control allowed a SkyWest aircraft to take off unhindered after the near miss

February’s near miss happened at Hollywood Burbank Airport, pictured

In an interview with NBC Nightly News host Lester Holt, FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said officials had started ‘to see things we don’t expect to see.’

“We expect every flight to perform as it should,” Nolen said.

“And so we’ve had these events over the past few weeks. That gives us a moment to say, “Let’s stop. Let’s think. Let’s ask ourselves: are we missing anything?” he said.

Nolen said more people are flying and more planes are in the air due to “pent-up demand for flights.”

“Flying has come back with a vengeance, so to speak,” Nolen said.

Speaking to NBC 4 Los Angeles, retired commercial pilot and aviation expert Ross “Rusty” Aimer Nolens echoed what he said.

“The airlines are increasing flights as much as they can. Everyone’s airborne,” Aimer said.

Overall, despite the string of tight calls, Aimer says people shouldn’t be worried.

“But the system is secure,” Aimer said. ‘The system works.’

The pilot behind the Miracle on the Hudson, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who now works as an aviation safety expert, said the tight calls at US airports were “the canaries in the coal mine.”

“We’ve lost a lot of our flying and the recovery from COVID has been faster than many anticipated – so we’ve come up short in many ways and in staffing,” Sullenberger told the Today Show.

Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who now works as an aviation safety expert, said the close calls at US airports were “the canaries in the coal mine”.

JFK, JANUARY 13: Panic broke out at JFK in New York when a Delta jet was forced to abort its takeoff after nearly missing an American Airlines plane. An air traffic controller yelled “S**t!” upon noticing that the American jet had flown over from an adjacent runway, ordered the other plane: ‘Delta 1943 cancel takeoff clearance!’

In January, a flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport nearly suffered a similar wreck when a Delta plane nearly went nose-first into the side of an American Airlines jet that had crossed onto its runway.

The Boeing 737 was already traveling at 185 km/h when an air traffic controller noticed the impending disaster.

The Delta pilot was forced to apply the brakes abruptly and went another 661 feet before coming to rest with just 1,000 feet before the plane would have T-bone the American Airlines Boeing 777.

Although the massive planes nearly collided, the Delta pilot was later heard casually saying on cockpit audio that he simply needed to make a few phone calls about the near-fatal crash.

The tight demands add to a growing list of fiascos for the country’s airline industry that have led to an upcoming federal review of the country’s aerospace system.

According to the FAA, the number of runway incursions reached 1,633 last year.

A runway incursion is any time an aircraft, vehicle or person is erroneously within a restricted area while an aircraft is taking off or landing.

The startling number of near misses has risen from 1,397 in 2012, while in 2002 there were just 987 reported incidents.