Aircraft

Work on the centre-field taxiway project at the Boston Logan International airport continues to be on hold following a near miss between a construction worker's Ford Explorer and a departing US Airways A320 early Thursday morning.

The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), operator of the airport, suspended the project pending an investigation. Two other investigations are underway as well, one by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and one by the US FAA's root cause analysis team.

According to the NTSB's preliminary report of the incident, US Airways Flight 27, enroute to Phoenix with 84 passengers and five crew members was cleared to depart Boston's runway 15R at approximately 0630h that morning in clear weather conditions.

Though the Explorer's driver was not in communication with air traffic controllers, Massport says all personnel were briefed that runway 15R was active at the time, and signage which is normally used to indicate a closed runway was not present. The driver, who has been suspended from driving at the airport after the incident, said he had not been briefed that the runway was open, according to the NTSB.

The NTSB says the US Airways jet lifted its nose for take off as the Explorer crossed through an intersecting taxiway about 152m (500ft) ahead. The NTSB did not state the minimum separation between the vehicles, but has classified the incident as serious.

Boston's airport ground surveillance radar alerted controllers of the event, according to the NTSB.