The Federal Aviation Administration reports that air traffic controllers prevented a departing private jet from colliding with a JetBlue flight as it was coming in to land in Boston on Monday night.
The FAA claims to be looking into the event.
This is the commercial airliner’s fifth near-miss on a runway this year.
According to a preliminary analysis of Flightradar24’s data, the two aircraft involved in Monday night’s apparent close call at Boston Logan International Airport were 565 feet (172 meters) away from colliding.
The FAA will ascertain the closest distance between the two aircraft as part of the investigation, the agency said in response to a request for comment on the Flightradar24 study by CNN.
“According to a preliminary review, the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance while JetBlue Flight 206 was preparing to land on an intersecting runway,” the FAA said in a statement on Tuesday.
“JetBlue 206, go around,” said the controller in Boston Logan’s tower, according to recordings archived by LiveATC.net.
The FAA says its air traffic controller told the crew of the Learjet to “line up and wait” on Runway 9 as the JetBlue Embraer 190 approached the intersecting Runway 4 Right.
“The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead,” the FAA said in a statement. “The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.”
The National Transportation Safety Board tells CNN it has not launched an investigation into the incident at Boston Logan, though it has investigated four other runway incursions involving commercial airliners at major US airports this year.
On Friday, the agency announced it was investigating a possible “runway incursion” in Burbank, California, involving Mesa and SkyWest regional airliners.
Three other incidents have occurred at Honolulu, Austin and New York’s JFK airport this year.