A JetBlue plane scraped its tail while performing a take-off at a regional airport in Colorado, in the United States, to avoid a head-on collision with another flight, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said. The incident took place last year when the other plane was preparing to land on the same runway. The NTSB report said that the JetBlue captain pointed the nose of the plane up more quickly than normal "due to his surprise about encountering head on landing traffic".
The pilot of the incoming plane, a Beechcraft King Air 350, was alarmed when JetBlue captain announced on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) that they were leaving the ramp area to taxi onto the runway.
A few seconds later, the King Air pilot reported on the local CTAF that they were "about 9 minutes out, for ten, coming in from the east, descending out of 17,000 ft", the NTSB report further said.
"I hope you don't hit us," the King Air crew said to the JetBlue pilots, as reported by CBS News.
The NTSB said flight data indicates that the planes were about 2.6 miles (4.1 kilometres) apart when the JetBlue Airbus A320 began its climbing right turn away from the airport.
A video of the incident shows the Airbus A320 crossing the runway with its nose up and tail slammed to the ground as surprised ground workers look on.
According to the NTSB, a quick right-turn after take-off kept the planes from colliding. The safety regulator also said that after the incident, JetBlue began developing training for pilots on flying at non-towered airports.
