FAA ‘Safety Summit’: US aviation officials are talking about averting ‘catastrophic’ incidents

CNN
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The skies have been turbulent over the United States in 2023 – and not just because of rogue balloons.

Since the start of the year, there have been a concerning number of high-profile “near misses” as planes involved in airport landing or taking off procedures came perilously close to potential disaster.

And then there’s the turbulence. As all flyers know, bumpy air is a regular feature of plane travel, but not usually, as has been experienced recently, to the violent extent that passengers are hurt.

Plus, details emerged of an incident late last year, in which a United Airlines Boeing 777 plunged toward the Pacific Ocean for 21 seconds just after takeoff, apparently pulling up just 800 feet over the Pacific Ocean as passengers screamed in fear.

The litany of incidents that have clocked up less than three months into 2023 have prompted such concern that this week the US Federal Aviation Administration convened a “Safety Summit.”

Of course, flying remains an incredibly safe way to travel. Commercial plane crashes are nowadays very rare, with approximately 45,000 flights typically completed each day in the US, all without fatality. That’s a number that continues to rise, post Covid.

So, given that the FAA has assembled aviation experts – and US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg – to take a closer look at what’s going on in the US, should passengers be worried?

While officials, still investigating these incidents, and airlines say flyers can continue to board planes with the confidence that the industry’s rigorous safety procedures will keep them out of harm’s way, some say recent events are a warning sign of potential trouble to come.

“These recent incidents must serve as a wake-up call for every single one of us, before something more catastrophic occurs. Before lives are lost,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said to government and industry leaders gathered for the summit on Wednesday.

On paper, it has not been a great year, thanks mainly to the series of headline-making “runway incursions” – essentially near misses between aircraft that made headlines and prompted serious questions about aviation risks.

On January 13, an