NYT — For those of us who travel, reports of near collisions on the runway send a jolt up the spine. Such incidents are admittedly rare. But there is no such thing as rare enough when you're strapped into your seat and waiting for takeoff.
Times article on Thursday by Matthew L. Wald reported that two weeks ago, a fully fueled wide-body Israir jet carrying an undetermined number of passengers wandered onto the wrong runway at Kennedy International Airport, smack into the path of a cargo plane accelerating for takeoff. Spotting the looming disaster, the pilot of the cargo plane got airborne early, skimming over the top of the passenger jet by less than 100 feet – the barest whisker by aviation standards.

This was an avoidable crisis, and it should never have happened at all. Yet on June 9, the co-pilot of a US Airways Boeing 737 had to delay takeoff and keep the plane's nose down to avoid crashing into an Aer Lingus Airbus A330 taking off on an intersecting runway at Logan Airport in Boston.

On Aug. 19 last year, a Boeing 747 flown by Asiana was cleared to land on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport at the same time that a Southwest Boeing 737 was cleared to take off. Disaster was averted when the Asiana pilot spotted the Southwest plane as it swung into position for takeoff and turned the Asiana plane away at literally the last minute – with two seconds to spare.

The Federal Aviation Administration has improved pilot training and equipment at some airports, but the National Transportation Safety Board still characterizes the F.A.A.'s actions on this issue as "unacceptable." Life is dangerous enough these days without adding avoidable accidents to the mix. It's past time to push everyone – including air traffic controllers, pilots and technicians – toward making these near-collisions a thing of the past.
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Lets hear it for sharp eyed pilots! It is truly an act of faith when you sit down on an airplane and hope to get to the other side alive. Pilots have been called glorified bus drivers and it is clear from these few anecdotes that this is a very unfair statement.