After near-misses at New York between an American Airlines and Delta Air Lines jet and in Austin between a FedEx and Southwest jet brought increased scrutiny, federal investigators are now looking into another near-collision between a United Airlines 777-200 and a Kamaka Air Cessna 206 at Honolulu Airport.
Report: United Airlines 777-200 Near-Collision In Honolulu
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened an investigation concerning an incident that occurred at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) on January 23, 2023, involving a United Airlines 777-200 passenger jet and a Kamaka Air Cessna 206 single-engine aircraft operating with cargo onboard.
According to preliminary reports, the United jet, which had arrived from Denver (DEN) as UA384, crossed a runway at HNL without permission while the cargo aircraft was landing. At the closest point, the aircraft were separated by 1,170 feet. It is not clear why the pilots disregarded tower instructions and crossed a runway they had been advised not to.
I want to stop for a moment and point out that this is a newsworthy incident because 1.) pilot error occurred and 2.) it is never comforting when two aircraft come close to one another, even if 1,170 feet is more than enough space for a single-engine aircraft like the Cessna 206 to slam on the brakes.
Even so, I think it is fair to point out the intense media scrutiny over near-misses or near-collisions after there American Airlines incident at New York (JFK) in January. Runway incursions are not exactly rare: this FAA database counts up over 30,000 over the last two decades. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to ask why such transparency has not led to a permeant reduction or elimination in these errors.
United has refused to comment on this incident, referring questions to the NTSB. The Federal Aviation Admiration (FAA) is also investigating this incident.
CONCLUSION
The NTSB is investigating another near-collision, this time involving a United Airlines 777 and a small propeller-powered aircraft in Honolulu. What concerns me is not so much this particular case, but the fact that so many errors seem to be occurring. While I am thankful we have avoided major tragedy thus far, vigilance is absolutely necessary to keep that trend going.
I would venture to say that many of these were occurring in the past quite frequently. But a few VERY close calls that were 2-3 seconds away from being disasters have heightened awareness and media reporting of even the lesser ones that normally would get less scrutiny. An example being Tucker Carlson’s obsession with a plane that went around in Houston, which all of us experience ourselves once or twice a year. So what. That’s the system working and doing its job.
Far more disturbing is the UA Maui flight. Combined with the EK and QR incidents the past year.
Maui pilots are still in training as of this week according to United and NTSB opened investigation
The NTSB has opened an investigation into the Dec. 18 incident in which a United Airlines 777 lost altitude before recovering shortly after departing Kahului, Hawaii, on a flight enroute to San Francisco. A preliminary report is expected in 2-3 weeks.
Could this be it?’: UC Berkeley professor recalls stomach-churning plunge on United Airlines flight to SFO. Nothing prepared Raymond for the sudden, stomach-churning drop he felt roughly a minute after takeoff, like being trapped in an elevator that had fallen several floors. “It happened so fast that I thought, ‘Could this be it?’” the 81-year-old, semi-retired UC Berkeley chemistry professor said, recalling his fleeting fear of death as the aircraft plunged. He had been staring at whitecaps on the Pacific Ocean from a window seat in Row 17, watching them recede as the plane ascended to 2,200 feet. Then, in a split second, he felt the tumbling sensation and saw the ocean pressing in.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/united-airlines-nosedive-sfo-17784425.php
Also AC reporting inquiry centers on flap retraction and crew interaction https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/united-1722-ntsb-flaps-crew/
I can’t believe mayor Pete would allow 30,000 incidents in the last to decades. What a useless diversity hire! This is what happens when u hire people just because they are gay! Thay cause problems even before they get in office. Get a brain morans!
This isn’t funny anymore. He just isn’t competent. Lots of people hate Marco Rubio, but I’m couldn’t find a lie here:
Dear Mr. President:
I write to urge you to request the immediate resignation of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Buttigieg, who has repeatedly demonstrated a gross level of incompetence and apathy that is detrimental to the safety and prosperity of the American people.
For two years, Secretary Buttigieg downplayed and ignored crisis after crisis, while prioritizing topics of little relevance to our nation’s transportation system. It is painfully clear to the American people that Secretary Buttigieg has little regard for the duties of the Secretary of Transportation.
At no time has that been more apparent than the past two weeks. Secretary Buttigieg refused to acknowledge the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, until his intentional ignorance was no longer tenable. Even after acknowledging the tragedy, he continues to deflect any accountability for the safety of our nation’s rail system. The circumstances leading up to the derailment point to a clear lack of oversight and demand engagement by our nation’s top transportation official.
Unfortunately, this is part of a two-year long pattern. During historic maritime and surface transportation disruptions in 2021, Secretary Buttigieg was completely absent. Amidst an impending possible rail strike last year, Secretary Buttigieg left the country to vacation in Portuguese wine country. Near misses in commercial aviation, as well as recent system failures, including the one that shutdown air travel in Florida in January, indicate that serious and persistent problems across the DOT are not being sufficiently remedied. I do not have confidence that Secretary Buttigieg is capable of keeping the American people safe.
Secretary Buttigieg is also alleged to have abused taxpayer dollars by chartering private jets that are costlier than allowed in federal employee travel regulations, including for international travel. Similar instances in previous administrations have led to resignations. Secretary Buttigieg is also alleged to have used government aircraft for travel that may be political in nature. The American people deserve to know that their tax dollars are not being abused for personal or political purposes by government officials, and that public officials are being held to the same standards regardless of their political affiliation.
For two years, the transparency and accountability that you promised to obsessively uphold during your inauguration has been nowhere to be found. The incompetence and failure within your administration cannot continue to be ignored when Americans’ health and safety are at risk. I hope you will change course in order to uphold your so-far-unmet promise to the American people by requesting the immediate resignation of Secretary Buttigieg.
https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/eba330ec-3ccd-49e9-ad2c-ff165deb06a9/B5F4F3EFB825D918E0CECDFE0663D190.02.16.23—rubio-to-potus-requesting-resignaiton-of-secretary-buttigieg.pdf
I thought the free market was supposed to clear all this up and the government was supposed to get out of the way. If polluting air and water is a problem then norfolk southern will lose business. If they don’t lose business then I guess the free market is showing that pollution is tolerable. Oh well. Thoughts and prayers
I am more concerned with the terrorism possibility over the free market right now. Apparently it’s fairly easy to derail a train. I saw a picture of a device placed on tracks that is not large but causes big problems. Furthermore, the latest conspiracy is that this may have been terrorism. With such incompetence at the helm, who can rule it out?
https://truthsocial.com/users/JuliansRum/statuses/109877722651165286
Yes, it is easy to derail a train, that’s why about 1000 derail every year.
If it were terrorism, why would they derail it in some small town instead of toledo or Cleveland in which it also passed through? Makes no sense.
None of us would be able to be able to figure that out so can only speculate. I know derailments and incursions are common but major ones are not. We are up to five major derailments in two weeks, plus major incursions. If railway terrorism, likely easier to conduct an act of terrorism in a smaller town. I don’t follow Don Jr. but saw his tweet reposted and it makes sense. Why—at a minimum—are the questions not even being asked by the media?? First the media ran with “its Trump fault”, but the NTSB shut that down quick. God forbid they consider anything else.
—We’ve had train wrecks day in and day out for the past week, coincidentally, right after a report about our possibly taking out Russia’s Nordstrom 2 pipeline and yet not a single reporter has asked if perhaps it’s a retaliation against our critical infrastructure.
I hope that’s not the case but does anyone believe in this much coincidence? Has the last few years not taught us to ask these basic questions? Is media that’s stupid and or bought and paid for that they wouldn’t even be questioning it? WTF?
Also must be yet another pesky coincidence that the CDC updated the safety profile of vinyl chloride right before the crash.
The toxicological profile of Vinyl Chloride was updated by the CDC a few weeks before the train derailment, the first time in 17 years.
Update: January 2023
Last Update: July 2006
Page 5 of this document lists the version history of the profile, with the last update before this current one (January 2023) being in July 2006.
Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia.
https://atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp20.pdf
Let’s not ever forget that the EPA was responsible for the worst river pollution event in our history several years ago in a river in Colorado. That’s right, the EPA.
And the Forest Service causing the recent New Mexico fires. These are the admissions we know about. Can only imagine what is covered up.
The EPA created the perpetual, never ending acid mine drainage left by private corporations to spill into the Animas River headwaters? Or irresponsible companies left a ticking time bomb waiting to go off on everyone downstream?
We have a new Superfund site next to the largest lake in our state. The profitable extraction company that created it continues to operate next door, and they’re going to leave it for US taxpayers to pay for and for local residents to deal with. When we find it’s seeping into the groundwater, and it will, I’ll blame the feds for that one too.
I’m glad little Marco has time to emerge from DJT’s asshole and form an opinion of his own.
Is that you, mayor Pete? Jk but not sure if 45 would disagree with any of Marco’s opinion. I certainly don’t. Seems like facts to me.
Railroad and Air safety doesn’t happen in a year or two. It takes a lot of experience and training for it to happen. Perhaps you have forgotten about the issues that Boeing has had with the 787, 737MAX, and KC-46. In 2014 a train derailment dumped a Boeing fuselage into a river. And we have had many pilot error crashes that never should have happened. I will be the first to say that the number of incidents is a concern and the airlines, the FAA, and the manufacturers need to look at the how and why. Your obvious political shot should stay out of this.
If you can show me how Buttigieg is competent, when he couldn’t even fix potholes in his own town, I’m all ears. By your account we should be giving him 3-5 year lead in time to get acclimated to his role? We don’t have time for that. That is why talent > D&I
Also for those who don’t read older comments on articles, yesterday the NTSB decidedly cleared up Pete’s accusation that Trump is to blame for the Ohio disaster by stating that Pete is spreading misinformation:
—While it is true that in 2018 the Department of Transportation (DOT) withdrew a proposed rule requiring trains carrying certain dangerous chemicals to use electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes, this rule would not have applied to the train that derailed in East Palestine on February 3.
In addressing the train derailment on Tuesday, Buttigieg claimed, “We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation,” and cited “the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015.”
Buttigieg’s assertion, however, is incorrect.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy announced on Thursday that if this particular rule were to have gone into effect, the mandate would have applied only to trains classified as high-hazard flammable trains.
“This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn’t have had ECP brakes,” Homendy said, and she suggested that anyone who says otherwise is “spreading misinformation.”
Oh wait I thought the NTSB was also part of the woke government agencies. That’s for sharing your MAGA propaganda!
It’s up to citizens to determine what is propaganda and what is not. These facts about the brakes are, in my view, decidedly not. There are good people in every agency like NTSB, FAA, DOT and so on. Someone said the NTSB is the last remaining agency not totally corrupted. Who knows. Either way the leadership at the top is what is majorly broken—Biden and Buttigieg primarily. Does the buck stop with them, or not?
The NTSB recommended using those brakes on ALL trains. Why instead of repealing their use on hazmat trains, did Trump and Chao not take the NTSB recommendation and implement them on all trains? That would have prevented this. Trumps fault, you lose
I am not that well versed in the Trump era brake issues so I’ll have to take your word for it as I can’t look it up right now. I also agree that the brakes should be on all trains. All of that being said, Biden/Buttigieg/Build Back Better couldn’t have handled it during the past 2+ years? It’s easy to place blame on the previous admin. I’m more focused on the current one.
What was clearly propaganda was Buttigieg blaming Trump.
TyThat’s propaganda—people believing Buttigieg because he told them what to think. Virtually the entire population is hypnotized in similar ways because someone else told them what to think.
Pilots of color should need no permission to cross runways. They are entitled to break through the systemic barriers of a system of systemic racism and transphobia that systematically gives privileges to whiteness Cessna 206 pilots.
Maybe the pilots were so anti woke that they were taxiing with their eyes closed. I applaud them for this.
Another episode of The AJ Show, I see. And just two days after a bizarre hyper-emotional apology for compulsively hijacking another comment thread with his attention-seeking political screeds.
Clicks are clicks, I suppose, but if I were Matt I’d also be a little concerned about the dignity of the site I ran.
Yes, too many posts have been hijacked this week. I please ask all readers to use discretion in commenting and please stay on topic.
hijacked? No. hijacking is terrorism. The truth does not equal terrorism.
“Not sure why that this is so controversial”
Zealotry, regardless of intent, is fatiguing and off-putting, and those who think they’re on some righteous red pill mission tend to not understand how that comes off to others. I came here hoping some of the community’s knowledgeable commenters would have insight on the article’s topic and am instead scrolling through pages of tangential political manifestos, most of which are from a single commenter. Gets old. Consider perhaps dialing it back an order of magnitude or so.
I do agree that I am not coming off well. I think about that all the time and I think Matthew knows that. Still, I am not a terrorist as insinuated. Being called a terrorist was not on my bingo card, but I get it. I disagree about my comments being tangential though. My comments are about current events that are impacting us all. Steve Kirsch and Josh Yoder are two of the only people that are publically telling the truth relentlessly about aviation. I respect that. And like them, I care enough about humanity to care to take the time to comment and educate others. I could be focusing on other things and not trying to help closed minded people. It is sad that knowledge is so depreciated now, and is often now despised, too. I guess it wasn’t my mission in life to subscribe to group think. My statements may seem political, but I try to only root them in fact. I may come off as Republican and MAGA and all the rest, but I’m not. Truth > politics. I’ve taken the time–decades now–since 9/11, to look at what is really going on. My awakening was not been recent. And it has been rather difficult to wait 20+ years for the rest of the world to catch up, hence my impatience and frustration. You mentioned “fatiguing and off-putting”, it’s been the same for me to watch the masses in their ignorance. I had thought that, despite it being disrespectful to Matthew’s comment policy, that telling the truth was important. I was wrong in that regard. But my sense of urgency was real and genuine–the world really is falling apart. I am paraphrasing Stuart but he said who wants to listen to the man on the street corner screaming that the world is ending. I get that. I don’t want to live in darkness or fear either, just like others don’t want to. But the reality is that darkness and evil exist and are currently the dominant ruling thought systems and energy on this planet. If change is ever to come, it has to be come from actual individuals. I was just trying to be the change I wanted to see, by speaking the truth about topics that matter. Health matters. Safety matters. Flight Attendants matter. Pilots matter. Trust me, it would be so much easier to have my head in the sand and not be a free thinker. I see people with their matrix stare all the time, and I do wonder what it would be like to still be sleep walking myself, as so many are. But I don’t believe that is the point of life–to sleep walk through it. Face the fear, face the darkness, face the uncomfortable “political manifestos” and help humanity heal. I don’t think that is terrorism, but to each their own.
I was sincere in the apology and I am sorry that I’m emotional. Something I’m working on. I apologized for being rude. Overall, my comments are certainly not about attention. On the contrary, I hate having to educate in the comments. This is not a role I wanted or enjoy—at all. It’s more important to me that we have a functioning country and that the massive corruption and safety issues are addressed now, primarily for the future of our children. They matter. The issues matter. I don’t know why everyone thinks that a well researched Independent is so controversial. It just seems people don’t want to know the truth—or can’t handle it. I’ve been awake since 9/11. All I’ve done for years is research and look for the truth in a massive sea of lies. Truth over politics. No one is coming to save this country or transportation. Clearly Biden isn’t. It’s up to informed citizens who care to do the heavy lifting at this point. Not sure why that this is so controversial.