LaGuardia Near Disaster: Plane Takes Off From Occupied Runway

VASAviation has just covered a recent close call at New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA), which is just another example of the extent to which our air traffic control system needs reform.

American jet takes off as United jet taxies on runway

This incident happened at around 12:30AM on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at LaGuardia Airport. It involves two aircraft:

• United flight UA2657, operated by a mainline Boeing 737-800, had just completed a flight from Houston (IAH), and was taxiing to the gate
• American Eagle flight AA4736, operated by a Republic Airways Embraer E175 (callsign “Brickyard”), was scheduled to depart to Buffalo (BUF), roughly three hours behind schedule, and was taxiing to the runway for departure

LaGuardia is an incredibly congested airport with limited space for movement, which makes the job of air traffic controllers complicated. Here’s the play-by-play of what’s relevant to this incident:

• The LaGuardia tower controller initially advises the United jet to hold short of runway 13, as it would be using that runway to taxi to its gate
• A short while later, the LaGuardia tower controller advises the United jet to taxi down runway 13, exit at a certain taxiway, and contact LaGuardia ground
• Shortly thereafter, the tower controller advises the American Eagle jet to line up and wait on runway 13, in preparation for takeoff
• The United jet passes the taxiway it’s supposed to exit on, so the ground controller gives him a different taxiway to exit on
• While the United jet is still on the runway, the tower controller gives the American Eagle jet takeoff clearance, and it starts its takeoff roll (meanwhile a Spirit pilot is stepping on the transmission)
• At this point the tower controllers gets an automated alert about the potential collision, and tells the American Eagle jet to cancel its takeoff clearance, but at the same time, the Spirit pilot is still stepping on the controller’s transmission
• The LaGuardia tower controller says “sorry about that, I thought United had cleared well before that”
• The American Eagle jet ends up returning to the gate, and the flight gets canceled

Based on flight tracking data, it appears the plane reached a maximum speed of over 100 knots, prior to rejecting its takeoff.

This incident was so avoidable, no?

I think incidents like this are a perfect representation of how complacent we’ve become with our air traffic control system, even if it makes no sense.

The most obvious issue here is that a tower controller and ground controller are both controlling movements on an active runway, on separate frequencies. If you step back and think about it, that just makes zero sense. In a vast majority of countries, a tower controller wouldn’t hand a pilot over to a ground controller until they’re off the active runway… for obvious reasons.

Also, when the tower controller says “I thought United had cleared well before that.” Like, based on what? Did he check/look at the radar, or he just assumed because he assumed?

Then there’s of course the communication challenge of people stepping on the controller’s transmissions, making it difficult for him to communicate that there’s an emergency that requires immediate action.

Look, air traffic controllers are really hard working, and do an amazing job keeping our skies safe. The problem is that they’re working within a really flawed system. At an airport like LaGuardia, the runway and taxiway congestion level is just next level, and they have a challenging task.

When you combine that with some of the stupid concepts that we just accept as normal (like two separate controllers on separate frequencies having control over the active runway), of course incidents like this are going to happen.

Bottom line

We recently saw yet another close call at LaGuardia Airport, as an American Eagle jet was cleared for takeoff while a United jet was still on the runway. The pilots were simply following instructions, and the issue is that one plane was on the tower frequency, and the other on the ground frequency.

What do you make of this LaGuardia incident?