FAA reviewing airline safety after passenger jet near misses

NEW YORK — The FAA is reviewing airline safety after a series of terrifying near misses involving passenger jets.

The move follows two runway incidents that could have been catastrophic and a deep dive that brought one plane alarmingly close to slamming into the ocean.

“In the past few months there have been several incidents that could have cost a terrible loss of life,” said Col Steve Ganyard, USMC (Ret.), ABC News Contributor.

A midair scare in December just recently came to light in which a United Airlines plane departing Maui took a nosedive. It plummeted more than 1,400 feet in about 20 seconds, coming within 775 feet of the Pacific Ocean.

Passengers say they “were praying for a miracle” while others were screaming.

The pilots regained altitude and flew on to San Francisco.

United says the pilots are receiving additional training.

Another recent close call was at New York’s JFK Airport.

A Delta plane nearly collided with an American Airlines flight that was crossing an active runway.

“This could have been the worst aviation disaster in U.S. history,” Ganyard said.

The American Airlines pilots are now complying with subpoenas from the NTSB after they initially declined three requests to be interviewed as part of the investigation.

There is likely no cockpit recording from either of the American or United close calls.

That’s because both planes continued with their flight plans and the cockpit data recordings only last for two hours.

“If an airplane takes off and flies a long distance, it gets overwritten and data is lost,” Ganyard said. “The FAA is pushing for longer 25-hour recorder so even if a plane is on longer flight, we’ll be able to look at what went wrong and create steps from it happening again.”

The FAA says the new safety review will “examine the U.S. aerospace system’s structure, culture, and processes.”

Most recently, the FAA and NTSB are investigating a close call involved a United Boeing 777 and a Cessna in Honolulu that came within 1,170 feet from each other when the 777 crossed the same runway where the Cessna was landing. The United plane crossed the runway without ATC clearance. FAA and NTSB statements below. United is referring all questions about the incident to the NTSB.

The FAA says it will hold a “summit” next month with industry leaders to discuss what actions need to be taken to improve safety.