American & Delta Jets Have Insanely Close Call In Boston, As Pilot Saves The Day

A single word would've turned this into a non-event- clearing American for "immediate" takeoff. If they needed 45 seconds to complete their checklists, they would then decline the clearance and there would be no conflict.

yes, the controller was talking faster than he could think and pushing metal with lots of lives at stake.

at sub-story is that AA and DL are the only 2 carriers flying BOS-DFW and DL is now flying it 3X/day while B6 isn't in the market at all anymore.

DL has built quite the operation at BOS in the past 5 years

Trying to push your pro DL agenda early Sun AM on a totally unrelated article.

You are quite the sad and pathetic human being.

Too many flights ... reduce by half .

facts are facts whether you like them or not.

The US aviation system works because of multiple vigilant parties. The DL crew did not believe the AA flight would be clear of the runway intersection and acted. These kinds of things happen w/ regularity in a system that pushes enormous amounts of traffic through airports that are working well beyond design levels.

It is always notable to see who actually is flying markets that are involved in incidents like this.
AA and DL happen to be flying both BOS-CLT and BOS-DFW, both of which have much larger AA hubs on one end of the route.

DL has done more to build hubs and open new markets than any other airline. Its leadership of the domestic industry which drives system finances is because of its size in major industry markets.

over the past 5 years, DL has overtaken B6 in size at BOS and will very likely gain more gates as the connector between terminals A and B is completed. DL pushes more traffic through its gates than any other airline at BOS while AA is one of several airlines w/ low gate utilization.

The only thing that is pathetic is that people like you are so easily triggered by hearing about DL's success.

that just locks in a duopoly and even when that kind of thing is done it solidifies the position of the strongest carriers which in BOS is DL.

BOS is a busy place but it is far from clear that the airport can't handle the traffic it handles. There weren't and aren't long lines waiting for takeoff.

Considering safety , there really are too many flights . There are also too high fares and fees , which are nothing more than greed . Reduce number of flights and fares/fees by half.

just because a controller tried to squeeze a departure in front of an arriving flight and the arriving flight's crew didn't believe there was enough room doesn't make the airport over capacity or mean that what the controller tried to do couldn't have been accomplished if the AA flight departed just a little faster.
Was he cutting the margin of error down? yes, but that doesn't mean that type of thing doesn't happen esp. at airports w/ intersecting runways.

Clearly the problem is Delta is pushing too many flights through Boston than the airport can handle. The FAA needs to step in and reduce the number of flights Delta is allowed to schedule here.

Agreed. Hence why I think the US should invest heavily in to High Speed Train to offer alternatives to travelers. China, Japan and Europe are way ahead on that end and I think having High Speed corridors (East Coast, West Coast, Midwest etc) would be greatly beneficial to the US Consumer. It is also a way nicer way to travel.

@Tim ... Reducing flights is logical if you consider the opposite : increasing flights , whichis bad . Increasing flights is bad ; so reducing flights is good . Same with fares and fees ; increasing fares and fees are bad ; so reducing them is good .

@Ale ... Higher speed is not good . Slower speed is better .

Do you realize that Boston Logan has more runways than Newark but handles only slightly more takeoff and landings?
What is unique about Boston compared to most hubs is that it has two runways that intersect the parallel runways and the two non-parallel runways also intersect each other.
Boston is a challenging airport, but it all works well.
The bigger take away is that Delta is winning the market and is only limited by gate space but that will change as the airport takes gates from other airlines that underutilize their gates and make them available to Delta

No names, no pack drill, however, there is someone who posts herein who has more useless patter than the Chinese army in flip-flops. He is clearly NO pilot. He is clearly NO ATC officer. Furthermore, his up to date analytic aviation information is extremely suspect. He really does need to wind his sanctimonious neck in.

Ben’s number one click generator without any shadow of a doubt. Is that why he was reportedly sacked by Delta?

The runways at BOS are arranged like a bowl of spaghetti.
Either lengthen 15L/33R (2557 feet) or 14/32 (5000 feet). These would be the parallel to 15R/33L (10,083 feet).
I understand the environmentalist would throw a fit, but something needs to be done to improve the safety of passengers.

many airports were built with a similar configuration for tao handle crosswind landings.
Modern airliners have much greater tolerance for crosswinds than early aircraft do but airports like BOS do not have the space to create double sets of parallel runways which is the only thing that would really increase capacity.

BOS has 6 bidirectional runways -really 12 runways - and there is a triple parallel with 32 and 33R and 33L. As you note the 2500 ft runway has no value while the 5000 foot runway is too short for air carrier operations.

22L and R are 7500 and 10k feet plus long but they intersect all 4 other runways including 9/27 and 19/33.

LGA has single intersecting runways so BOS has about 2X the usable capacity as LGA
JFK has double intersecting parallel runways while EWR has double parallel interesecting a single runway.

The setup at BOS is pretty common in the NE where it has not been possible to create more parallels and BOS has more capacity than other NE airports.

It just requires ATC to work very closely together.

The controller here just thought that he could squeeze a takeoff in before the DL intersecting arrival. If timing had been slightly different, he might have succeeded.

and there are go arounds even at airports like DFW, ORD and ATL which have only or predominantly multiple parallel runways.
ATC does a good job of pushing metal through congested airports and pilots do a good job of working w/ ATC to resolve conflicts.

This might seem like a big story for aviation social media but it is business as usual for the US' professional pilots and controllers.

There looks to be plenty of space for either over the sea.
14/32 would avoid aircraft taxiing across 15R/33L

And, if you want a great view of all the action, consider using your WOH Cat 1-4 free night at the nearby Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor (pronounced “hah-bah”), and ask for a room on a high floor, runway view. The clam chowdah is pretty decent, too.

Thank you for proving me to have made a correct assessment of your aviation experience Walter …. Again!

It is not obvious to your readers but it is obvious to any airline pilot that you don't know what you are talking about. It may be true that either the takeoff clearance or the landing clearance should have been cancelled, but consider this. The fact that the two planes arrived over approximately same area of the. runway proves there would have been no collision if the landing plane had landed. If it had landed, it would immediately have began slowing down. Thus, instead of arriving at approximately the same area of the runway at the same time, thae landing plane would have gotten there after the plane taking off had gone past that spot. There would have been no collision if it had landed. Since the landing plane aborted its landing and flew over the plane taking off, there was no collision. A near-miss? Technically, yes. Actually, no.