Airline Chief Pilots Summoned To Boston For Safety Summit

The number of near-miss incidents on the ground at Boston's Logan International Airport have gone from zero to 14 in just a year. Wednesday, authorities unveiled a stop-gap safety plan they hope will reduce the number of runway incursions, as the search for solutions continues.

At least ten of the 14 incidents reported since October have occurred in the airport's southwest corner. It's a small area where several runways and taxiways intersect -- and it's the focus of safety efforts by Massport and federal officials.

Those are the hot spots," FAA spokesman Jim Peterstold the Boston Herald. "Massport, FAA and the (airport) users are looking at what we can do to improve things there."

So they're putting up new signage and ordering controllers to more carefully monitor traffic in the area. In addition, chief pilots from the major airlines serving BOS have been summoned to Beantown for a summit on the new safety procedures.

As ANN reported in real time Tuesday, the scramble for safety solutions came after a FedEx A300 crossed an active runway last week in spite of a hold-short order from the tower. That forced a JetBlue aircraft to abort its take-off.

In addition to the new signage and the chief pilot summit, airport employees will now escort all aircraft being taxied for maintenance.

FMI: www.massport.com/logan