LaGuardia Runway Scare: Jet Aborts Takeoff to Avoid Collision

When a passenger jet roaring down the runway toward takeoff at New York's LaGuardia Airport had to slam on the brakes earlier this month because another plane was still on the runway, Renee Hoffer and all the other passengers were thrown forward in their seats.

Hoffer wound up in the emergency room the next day after the near miss on May 6 because her neck started hurting and her left arm went numb.

"The stop was as hard as any car accident I've been in," Hoffer said.

Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, which occurred despite LaGuardia being equipped with an advanced surface radar system designed to help prevent such close calls.

In audio from the tower, the air traffic controller said to the pilot of the Republic Airways jet: "Sorry, I thought United had cleared well before that."

At the time, a ground controller on a different radio frequency was directing the United plane to a new taxiway after it missed the first one.

Hoffer said she's been stuck in a customer service nightmare since the flight ended abruptly. She said neither the airline nor the FAA has answered her complaints while she continues to nurse the pinched nerve in her neck that the ER doctors identified.

The number of close calls in recent years has created serious concerns for the FAA, NTSB and other safety experts.

LaGuardia is one of just 35 airports equipped with the FAA's best technology to prevent runway incursions. The ASDS-X system uses a variety of technology to help controllers track planes and vehicles on the ground.

The rate of runway incursions per 1 million takeoffs and landings has remained around 30 for a decade.

There are efforts to develop a system that will warn pilots directly about traffic on a runway instead of alerting the controller and relying on them to relay the warning. That could save precious seconds.

The worst accident in aviation history occurred in 1977, when two planes collided on the Spanish island of Tenerife; 583 people died.