A private jet carrying a college basketball team narrowly avoided colliding with a departing flight at Los Angeles International airport, after a last minute intervention from air traffic control.
The Key Lime Air Flight 563 was directed to “hold short” of crossing a runway where a second plane was taking off, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The incident happened at around 4.30 p.m. on Friday December 27.
In footage captured on a livestream video, the controller can be heard saying “stop, stop, stop” to avoid a serious incident.
Plane spotter Kevin Ray, who created the YouTube channel where the video was posted, can be heard exclaiming: “Wow! In the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never heard an ATC controller tell a plane to ‘Stop, stop, stop,’”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was investigating the close-call incident but said that the private jet “never crossed the runway edge line.”
“Air traffic controllers directed Key Lime Air Flight 563 to hold short of crossing a runway at Los Angeles International Airport because a second aircraft was taking off from the runway at the time,” the FAA said in a statement, shared with The Independent.
“When the Embraer E135 jet proceeded to cross the hold bars, air traffic controllers told the pilots to stop. The jet never crossed the runway edge line… The FAA will investigate.”
The Key Lime Air Flight had just arrived from Washington state, and was transporting the Gonzaga University’s men’s basketball team to LA, ahead of a match with UCLA the following day.
Gonzaga “expects to receive more information related to this event, and is grateful that the incident ended safely for all,” the university said in a statement shared with the Los Angeles Times.
The incident comes following two severe plane crashes in South Korea and Azerbaijan, which collectively claimed the lives of over 200 people. The tragedies have taken the number of onboard deaths to 318 in 2024, the deadliest year on record since 2018, according to Bloomberg.
