NTSB says plane flew 200 feet over another in Philadelphia

WASHINGTON » Investigators say a small plane that was aiming to land on a taxiway instead of the runway came within about 200 feet of striking another plane on the ground in Philadelphia.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report Thursday on the Aug. 10 incident at Philadelphia International Airport.

The NTSB says the pilot of a Gulfstream charter flight operated by Pegasus Elite Aviation pulled up about one-tenth of a mile from the end of the taxiway, where four airline regional jets were waiting.

Lights identifying the runway and the approach path to the runway were out of service at the time of the 8:50 p.m. incident, according to the NTSB.

No injuries were reported. There were four passengers and three crew members on the Pegasus jet.

Pegasus did not immediately respond to email and phone messages for comment.

The preliminary report did not include a probable cause or findings from the ongoing investigation.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported the incident to the NTSB the following day. The NTSB said audio on the cockpit voice recorder of the Pegasus plane had already been recorded over, but the flight data recorder was removed from the plane for analysis.

The incident is eerily similar to one last year in San Francisco, in which an Air Canada jet mistakenly aimed to land on a crowded taxiway and flew just over the tops of four airliners waiting to take off. The NTSB is scheduled to hold a hearing on that case Sept. 25.