Houston Hobby Airport: investigation as two private jets collide when one takes off without permission

Two private jets collided at a Texas airport on Tuesday (24 October) after one took off without permission. The incident occurred at William P Hobby Airport in Houston at about 4pm and halted flights for three hours according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The FAA said it is still investigating how many passengers were on board. No injuries were reported, and both of the aircraft have since been declared fire-safe by the Houston Fire Department according to a statement.

The FAA said a twin-engine Hawker H25B took off without permission from one of the airport’s runways causing it to clip wings with a twin-engine Cessna C510 that was landing on an adjacent tarmac. By 7pm on Tuesday all of the debris had been cleared from the airfield and flights began to continue as normal. At the time officials said 11 flights had been diverted and American Airlines had cancelled four flights.

In a statement the Houston Fire Department said: “Houston Airports is working to safely remove the debris to restore operations as soon as possible. Due to the debris caused by the accident, the airfield is shut down until further notice.” The incident remains under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

It comes after two planes almost collided with each other over Portland Airport on 16 October, with the air traffic controller frantically telling them to change direction. An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 was trying to land while a Skywest Airlines plane was taking off. The two planes allegedly came within approximately 250 vertical feet of each other. Commercial planes flying below 29,000 must maintain a vertical separation of 1,000 feet, according to BAA Training, a global aviation training centre.

According to the FAA, the pilot of the Alaska Airlines plane was going to land, but initiated a go-around when it almost collided with the Skywest flight. At that time Portland was also cast over with heavy rain and mist which limited the aircraft crew’s visibility.