Delta Air Lines flight 2351 aborted its landing at Boston Logan International Airport on Saturday after it was forced to avoid an American Airlines plane on an intersecting runway. The Delta flight, carrying 129 passengers and six crew members, landed safely after the crew coordinated a go-around with air traffic control.
Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer at Boeing, used Flightradar24 to estimate that the two jetliners were roughly 300ft apart, or about 90 meters. He said, “This is a significant incident,” as the close call drew attention because it involved two professional airline crews.
Boston Logan runway conflict
The FAA is investigating the Saturday incident at Boston Logan International Airport. Delta flight 2351 was arriving from Dallas when the crew had to execute the go-around to avoid the American Airlines plane departing from an intersecting runway.
Go-arounds are safe, routine procedures used when a landing cannot continue as planned. In this case, the aircraft landed safely and deplaned normally after the maneuver. For a reader aboard that flight, the immediate effect was a change in the approach, not a disruption to the arrival on the ground.
Because the aircraft were on intersecting runway paths, the incident fits the category of a runway incursion being examined by FAA and under wider attention on Capitol Hill. A separate report on airport disruptions tied to Delta Air Lines flights is available in this summary of Birmingham Airport cancellations.
Todd Curtis on the separation
Curtis’ estimate gives the clearest measure of how close the aircraft came to each other. At roughly 300ft, the spacing was far inside the scale most travelers would expect between two commercial jets on active runways, which is why the event drew scrutiny even though the Delta crew handled it through a standard procedure.
The fact pattern also matters for what happens next: FAA investigators will review the runway sequence, the coordination with air traffic control, and the movements of both aircraft before the near miss. The Senate commerce subcommittee on aviation, space, and innovation will take up near-misses and runway incursions at US airports on Tuesday, keeping the Boston Logan event in the center of a broader safety review.
For passengers on Delta flight 2351, the flight itself ended normally. For the airport and the FAA, the unanswered issue is why the American Airlines plane was on an intersecting runway when the Delta jet was on approach.
