Airlines Warn of Hundreds of Daily Near-Misses as Lawmakers Push for Cockpit Safety Upgrades

WASHINGTON — The commercial aviation industry delivered a staggering revelation to Capitol Hill, warning that the number of near-misses and close calls unfolding across United States airspace is significantly higher than what is ever reported to the public. Testifying before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on aviation safety, Airlines for America President and CEO Chris Sununu stated that minor runway incursions and narrow aerial separations occur hundreds of times every single day, exposing a widening gap between high-profile headlines and the raw safety data monitored by industry groups.

The high-stakes hearing follows an alarming close call over Boston's Logan International Airport on Saturday, where a Delta Air Lines flight was forced to abruptly abort its landing sequence. A cockpit collision alert warned the Delta crew that an American Airlines jet was positioned just 300 feet away on an intersecting runway and preparing for takeoff. Audio logs captured widespread confusion in the tower and cockpit as controllers scrambled to determine how the American flight had been cleared to cross into the landing course, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic ground collision.

The close call in Boston adds to a mounting catalog of recent near-misses that have put federal regulators on the defensive. In Nashville, two Southwest Airlines planes came within 500 feet of one another during a chaotic runway sequence, while a separate incident at New York's JFK International Airport forced an American regional jet to abort its landing and fly directly through the active approach course of an Air Canada flight. The frequent nature of these safety lapses has prompted the nation's largest pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association, to demand immediate legislative intervention.

Union President Captain Jason Ambrosi urged Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration to mandate the installation of advanced, GPS-based air traffic receivers known as ADS-B In across all commercial aircraft. The readily available technology allows pilots to see real-time positions of all surrounding aircraft directly on their cockpit displays, providing an independent line of defense when ground control communication or visual separation fails. The National Transportation Safety Board has advocated for the mandatory tracking receivers for the past 18 years, but implementation has stalled due to financial pushback from commercial operators.

The absence of this critical tracking infrastructure proved fatal last year on January 30, 2025, when an American Airlines regional flight collided mid-air with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people. Senator Ted Cruz emphasized during the hearing that if the ADS-B In mandate had been codified into federal law prior to that tragedy, the devastating crash would have been avoided. Despite the bipartisan pressure, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, the former head of Republic Airways, has expressed reluctance to mandate the costly retrofits, preferring to focus on localized procedural reforms.

Compounding the technological deficiencies is a chronic, severe staffing shortage within the nation's air traffic control towers. While a current FAA hiring initiative aims to add 6,900 controllers to the federal payroll by 2028, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association cautions that the plan remains roughly 3,800 employees short of what baseline aviation safety demands. With exhausted controllers managing increasingly crowded flight paths, industry experts warn that relying purely on human sight and outdated ground radar is no longer sufficient to guarantee the safety of the traveling public.

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