The Federal Aviation Administration confirms to Maine’s Total Coverage that it is investigating after a flight took off from a closed runway at Portland International Jetport this week. The FAA says Southwest Airlines Flight 4805 to Baltimore took off from a temporarily closed runway on Tuesday, June 25, around 5:45 a.m. The FAA says an airport vehicle left the runway shortly before the plane took off the flight. In air traffic control audio recordings obtained by Maine’s Total Coverage, controllers can be heard saying several times “southwest pulling into 2-9, just so you know there’s still a runway and it’s closed.” Then, moments later, a controller is heard saying “I tried to warn him.” Portland tower controllers were unable to make contact with the flight during takeoff and after takeoff. You can listen to recordings of air traffic control communications, courtesy of LiveATC. net, in the video player above. The takeoff took place about two minutes before the runway opened for breakfast. Jetport issued a statement Friday saying, “We are grateful that airport staff maintained situational awareness, identifying in real time the aircraft entering the runway environment and immediately clearing the airport vehicle from the runway.” The main east/west runway at Jetport has been closed from 10.30pm to 5.45am since April 22 while crews do runway work. Instead, flights must use the north/south runway during those times. Southwest Airlines issued a statement about the incident to Maine’s Total Coverage, saying, “Southwest Airlines is engaged with the NTSB and the FAA to understand the circumstances of a early morning departure from Southwest on Tuesday, June 25, of flight 4805 from Portland International Jetport After departure, the aircraft continued safely to its destination.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirms to Maine’s Total Coverage that it is investigating after a flight took off from a closed runway at Portland International Jetport this week.
The FAA says Southwest Airlines Flight 4805 to Baltimore took off from a temporarily closed runway on Tuesday, June 25, around 5:45 a.m.
In air traffic control audio recordings obtained by Maine’s Total Coverage, controllers can be heard saying several times “southwest pulling into 2-9, just so you know there’s still a runway and it’s closed.” Then, moments later, a controller is heard saying “I tried to warn him.”
Portland tower controllers were unable to make contact with the flight during takeoff and after takeoff.
You can listen to recordings of air traffic control communications, courtesy of LiveATC.net, in the video player above.
The takeoff took place about two minutes before the runway opened for breakfast.
Jetport released a statement Friday saying, “We are grateful that airport staff maintained situational awareness, identifying in real time the aircraft entering the runway environment and immediately clearing the airport vehicle from the runway.”
The main east/west runway at the Jetport has been closed between 10.30pm and 5.45am since April 22 while crews carry out runway work. Instead, flights must use the north/south runway during those times.
Southwest Airlines released a statement about the incident to Maine’s Total Coverage, saying, “Southwest Airlines is engaged with the NTSB and FAA to understand the circumstances of an early morning departure from Southwest on Tuesday, June 25, of Flight 4805 from Portland International Jetport. departure, the aircraft continued safely to its destination.”