At New York’s LaGuardia Airport earlier this month, a passenger jet had to abruptly stop on the runway during takeoff due to another plane still on the runway. This incident resulted in injuries for some passengers, including Renee Hoffer, who ended up in the emergency room the next day. According to Hoffer, the sudden stop was as hard as any car accident she had experienced.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are both currently investigating the incident. The close call occurred despite the airport being equipped with an advanced surface radar system designed to prevent such incidents. Audio from the tower reveals that the air traffic controller believed the United Airlines plane had already cleared the runway, but in reality, it was still taxiing to a new taxiway after missing the first one.

Upon disembarking the plane after the close call at 12:35 am, Hoffer and other passengers were denied hotel vouchers by the gate agents who blamed the weather. However, another passenger had an app on their phone showing that another plane was on the runway at the time. Hoffer has since been struggling with a customer service nightmare as neither the airline nor the FAA has addressed her complaints about her injuries.

This incident is just one of many close calls that have raised serious concerns for the FAA, NTSB, and other safety experts in recent years. In February 2023, a close call at Austin airport prompted an NTSB investigation, and there have been other notable near misses, including a Southwest Airlines jet narrowly avoiding a collision with a business jet in Chicago.

LaGuardia is one of only 35 airports in the country equipped with the FAA’s most advanced technology to prevent runway incursions. This system, known as the ASDS-X, uses various technologies to track planes and vehicles on the ground. However, at the other 490 US airports with a control tower, air traffic controllers rely on more low-tech tools, such as binoculars, due to the high cost of implementing the advanced systems.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has expressed interest in expanding the use of this technology to more airports, but it would require approval from Congress and significant funding. Despite the advanced technology in place, close calls on runways continue to occur. The FAA is taking additional steps to reduce these incidents, including plans to install a warning system at LaGuardia in the future. However, the rate of runway incursions has remained relatively constant for the past decade, with less than 20 serious incidents per 1 million takeoffs and landings.

Efforts are also underway to develop a system that would directly warn pilots about traffic on the runway, instead of relying on air traffic controllers to relay the information. This could potentially save valuable time in preventing collisions. However, the FAA has yet to certify a system developed by Honeywell International that has been in development for years.

As a reminder of the consequences of runway incursions, the worst accident in aviation