The chair of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board known as out Hollywood Burbank Airport as having a regarding threat of a midair collision and urged federal regulators to take motion.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, talking at a board assembly in Washington, mentioned industrial airways had warned of the danger of plane colliding at Burbank Airport. The airport is a busy Class C, or medium-sized, airport with brief runways and a decent airspace. It’s amongst “hotspots” with a excessive quantity of combined helicopter and airplane site visitors, in line with the FAA.
“Burbank is one the place industrial airways have known as me to say the following midair goes to be at Burbank, and no person at [the Federal Aviation Administration] is taking note of us,” Homendy mentioned.
She added that “whether or not it’s involving helicopters or not, persons are elevating pink flags, and why aren’t folks listening? The FAA has to make sure security. That’s their job.”
A consultant at Hollywood Burbank Airport referred all questions and feedback to the FAA.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
Homendy spoke simply earlier than the primary anniversary of a catastrophic crash that claimed 67 lives outdoors Washington, D.C. The company revealed findings into the crash of an American Airways regional jet and an Military Black Hawk helicopter. As Homendy laid out what she known as a sequence of institutional failures by the FAA earlier than the January 2025 crash, she pointed to considerations in regards to the mixing of economic airplane and helicopter site visitors, noting that there are intensive information pointing to the hazard of such a midair collision.
A consultant at Hollywood Burbank Airport referred all questions and feedback to the FAA.
An FAA spokesperson responded that the company, which is liable for the protection of the nation’s airspace, “acted instantly to enhance security” following final 12 months’s collision outdoors Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport.
“In February 2025, we started utilizing revolutionary AI instruments to establish related hotspots with excessive volumes of combined helicopter and airplane site visitors and implement applicable mitigations,” the assertion learn.
The company added that Van Nuys and Hollywood Burbank airports had been amongst its focus areas.
“Based mostly [on] our security evaluation, the FAA lowered the Van Nuys site visitors sample by 200 toes throughout an analysis in 2025 to see if that would scale back conflicts with plane touchdown at Burbank,” the assertion learn. “Preliminary information indicated the change resulted in a discount of Site visitors Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerts for Burbank arrivals and we completely lowered the Van Nuys site visitors sample efficient Jan. 5.”
Homendy’s feedback caught some officers abruptly.
Whereas it’s not unprecedented for security considerations to be raised at an airport, the truth that it’s occurring with no current crash or failure is unquestionably uncommon, mentioned Randy Klatt, a former Navy and industrial pilot who now could be a flight security officer with the Basis for Aviation Security.
“It’s additionally uncommon that the [NTSB] chairperson would say that she’s heard immediately from airways,” Klatt mentioned. “Hopefully the FAA will truly take motion to assist mitigate a few of these hazards.”
Whereas he was happy that the FAA has taken some steps to scale back and modify air site visitors at Hollywood Burbank, he mentioned there must be extra concentrate on bettering security at that airport and at others across the nation. The airport itself has little management over these points, however could make some modifications, like limiting hours of operation, Klatt mentioned.
“We now have to place extra restrictions on the place and when flights can happen,” Klatt mentioned, noting that the Hollywood Burbank airport is a part of a very busy airspace.
Sadly, he mentioned, there’s little the general public can do about these considerations, however he really helpful flying within the early morning hours or late at evening when there are usually fewer planes within the air.
“It’s a superb factor that somebody is lastly saying that it is a threat,” Klatt mentioned. “Hopefully now we have turned the web page a bit bit.”
For Dan Feger, govt director at Hollywood Burbank from 2008 to 2016, Homendy’s pleas to the FAA have a well-known tone.
“I hope that they get up earlier than the disaster that NTSB is warning about truly happens,” he instructed The Occasions.
There have been basic industry-wide aviation considerations which will have factored into the elevated security dangers.
Feger mentioned a rising scarcity of skilled staffing on the Southern California TRACON — the nation’s busiest radar method management facility masking roughly 2 million flights yearly between Burbank and the border — posed a rising security risk, significantly for Burbank, Van Nuys and Los Angeles Worldwide.
“With all three of them converging to the identical waypoints to go north or to go east, there’s not sufficient air site visitors controllers to do this safely,” Feger mentioned. “However they received’t say that.”
As for Hollywood Burbank itself, Feger highlighted two particular points, main with taxiways. The opening of the airport’s new terminal, slated for October, didn’t embrace an extension of close by Taxiway B. As a substitute Taxiway A will probably be prolonged, however solely after the present working terminal is demolished.
Restricted taxiway area means there will probably be eventualities the place planes are taking off and touchdown and taxiing all on the identical runway, Feger mentioned.
“The Taxiway A extension will probably be accomplished some two years after the substitute terminal is opened,” Feger mentioned. “Throughout that two-year time interval, the operations at BUR will probably be much more unsafe than they presently are.”
Feger additionally mentioned he petitioned for years to shorten one of many runways, No. 33, to permit for the development of an Engineered Supplies Arresting System, a form of crush zone to cease airplanes that overshoot their landings.
There’s presently a blast fence that will not be sufficient to cease a airplane, which might theoretically smash into the close by railroad tracks, he mentioned.
“You possibly can doubtlessly have an airplane crashing right into a Metrolink practice,” he mentioned. “The entire thing is weird.”
There have been shut calls at Hollywood Burbank earlier than.
In February 2023, a Mesa Airways airplane tried to land on the identical runway from which a SkyWest Airways flight was taking off, and the planes got here inside 1,680 toes of one another.
Pilots on the Mesa Airways flight determined that the separation between their craft and the one taking off was inadequate and initiated a go-around, wherein a touchdown is aborted.
“The native controller didn’t subject a site visitors advisory or security alert, as required, to both of the flight crews instantly after [the Mesa Airlines plane] reported going round, or throughout the next minutes when each airplanes had been in an unsafe proximity to one another,” in line with an NTSB investigation report.
The investigation revealed the controller, distracted by a 3rd airplane circling the airport, delayed clearing the SkyWest flight for takeoff and failed to watch the runway and airspace adequately.
The controller then directed the Mesa airplane onto a path that risked a collision, triggering cockpit alarms in each planes. The Site visitors Collision Avoidance System issued warnings and guided the planes aside.
As well as, the NTSB report acknowledged {that a} lack of floor and method monitoring gear on the airport contributed to the incident.
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this report.
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