Two jets collide at Houston airport after one took off without clearance

The planes were using intersecting runways at William Hobby Airport in Houston, according to flight tracking data. The first jet, a Hawker 850XP, was taking off to the southwest, while the other, a Cessna Citation, was coming in to land from the northwest. Local television news images show damage to the tail of one plane and the wing of the other. The owners of the two planes could not be reached for comment.

While an air traffic controller directed the Hawker pilot to continue on, he responded, “I just had a midair. We can’t do that.” The controller said, “You said what?” according to an audio recording archived by LiveATC.net. “You guys cleared somebody to take off or land and we hit them on a departure,” the pilot said.

Aviation agency unveils safety ‘call to action’ after airport incidents

The Hawker jet was able to take off and then circle back around to land at the airport. Air traffic controllers can be heard scrambling to redirect other traffic and to send a team onto the airfield to determine what happened. The airport, which also is used by major airlines, was closed for hours Tuesday afternoon and air traffic controllers had to divert several approaching flights to nearby George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The Tuesday collision happened hours before the Senate confirmed Michael Whitaker as the new administrator of the FAA, filling a role that was vacant for 18 months. One of his early priorities will be to bolster aviation safety after a string of near misses at airports throughout the year, a number of them involving airliners.

The FAA and the NTSB both held summits earlier this year to address the problem. Data on one kind of close call, known as a runway incursion, suggested the rate of the most serious incidents had started to improve. However, the near misses have continued.

In many cases, the aviation incidents appear to have stemmed from miscommunications or misunderstandings between pilots and air traffic controllers. Officials said they are a sign of the strain that the aviation system has been under as air travel and traffic have rapidly rebounded from pandemic lows.